Our Hearts Will Tell
by Christyslsb
Summary: Modern AU. Elsanna no-incest. Elsa Winters is a new cardiac surgeon in town. If there something she sknows, is how the heart works. Despite this she's called Ice Queen. Will there be someone who thaws her frozen heart? Maybe a redhead could help bringing a bit of Summer. (Rating may change in the next chapters.)
1. Chapter 1

_Arendelle General Hospital_. Elsa Winters begins her first day of work in this hospital. She's a cardiac surgeon who moved from Southerisland Hospital. She's not a very sociable person, but when it comes to work she's one of the best in her field. Despite her young age she's one of the nation's most prominent cardiac surgeons.

"Dr. Winters? Hello, my name is Kai Summers, the Chief of surgery at this hospital, welcome. I hope you'll be fine here."

"Good morning and thanks. I hope it too."

"Unfortunately I have a meeting with the members of the Council and I can't make the tour of the hospital, but your interns will do it. He's coming now." A blond guy is running through the hall and he nearly collided with a nurse.

"Hello, I hope I'm not late, Kristoff Bijorman. You must be Dr. Elsa Winters. It's an honour to work with you." The boy extended his hand. She looks at it but she's holding her hands entwined at her lap and looks at the boy with a neutral air.

"Good morning, you're my intern? So you're under my responsibility, I hope that you have the right skills. I don't like trouble in my operation room." Kristoff looks at her speechless, instead the chief makes a grimace.

"Dr. Winters, he's one of the best interns we have, this is a _teaching hospital_, so I expect you to teach something useful to him. Now I have to go. Good day doctors."

"Well, then let's see where the Department of Cardiology is. Follow me."

The first few hours of the day pass with Kristoff showing Elsa the hospital.

"And here we have everyone's favourite place, the cafeteria. Compared to other hospitals here you eat really well, and everyone goes crazy for sweets, but you'll have the opportunity to find it out."

"The tour is over? Or there's other to see?"

"No. You saw everything. It'll take a while to settle in."

"Yes, it's a big hospital, but I think it's because it is a General Hospital and a teaching one. I also noticed the rooms where you can see the operations."

"Exactly, we have labs for research. Here we are very well equipped, if you want to do some clinical trial you're free to do so. Of course, first, you have to ask for a permission."

"Thank you Dr. Bijorman for the tour. Now it's time to make the rounds of patients who left me Dr.."

"Dr. Fritz. He was a great surgeon, he has taught much to many of us. It's sad that he's retired. He was loved by everyone."

"I didn't know him personally, so I can't know if he was so great as you said. Sooner or later comes to everyone the time of retirement." Kristoff is always more stunned by the new doctor. He can't imagine that a person so cold could existed, how can she be a doctor? What kind of relationship will she have with patients?

Elsa was born in a doctors' family. She's been raised as one of them, but her parents, or better her father has always been too strict with her, she wasn't allowed to be distracted, she had to study hard. He wanted her to be one of the best surgeons in the world. So instead of going to the park to pla with the other girls, she went with her parents at medical conferences , or she stayed at the library studying the anatomy of the human body. His father, Joseph, wanted her to take neurology, but she decided as her mother Katherine: cardiology. Katherine tried to make her daughter an happy little girl, with the most normal childhood she could have. When Elsa was with her mother, she was happy because she could stay away a little from the study and have some fun. She loved her parents and when they died n a plane crash she was shocked and she's closed in herself, not allowing anyone to approach her. Except when it's absolutely necessary, as in the OR, where it's needed dialogue between colleagues.

Kristoff on the other hand is a solar and sociable guy. A strange combination, but maybe that's why the Chief wanted this combination with these two. Kai knew the Elsa's reputation, and he hopes that in this hospital will be better, and maybe the presence of Kristoff might be useful.

Or not.

As expected, in the early days for Elsa was a little difficult to settle in, and the thing that made it even more complicated was her tenacity of not asking for directions or help from others.

_'This hospital is totally different from Southerisland, here everyone's smiling, help, it's like a big family. I don't think I'll be able to settle in very well.'_. While she's making the rounds of patients alone, she recognize the voice of a boy who's screaming. '_No, this place isn't for me. Bijorman should be the best of the interns?'_

"Dr. Winters, I'm sorry for the delay, but my car didn't work."

"Take it to the mechanic. Prepare the patient of 24-B, we have gotten confirmation from the transplant center: they found a compatible heart."

"Really!? That's a wonderful news! Finally the little Meggy will get her new heart and can play soccer again."

"First we need to see if she doesn't reject the new organ. Prepare her and let her know about the procedure, then you'll come with me at the Westgard Hospital."

Kristoff sends her a look '_She's like a robot. Is she human?'_. After informing the family of the little girl, he and Elsa went to take the heart: it's healthy, compatible and they'll operate soon.

"Bijorman, wash yourself, you'll be with me in the OR, I hope you know how to transplant a heart."

"Yes, but I've never operated before."

"You'll be my second. If you follow what I say we shouldn't have problems. Don't be late."

The operation went well, Meggy seems to respond well to the new organ. While Kristoff is enjoying his lunch, Elsa continued to read the cases of the other patients of Dr. Frits, she's drinking some chocolate.

"Ehy Kristoff! So, today was the Day!" A redhead approaches the boy, hugging him. Her voice could be heard miles away. '_Who's the one that screams so much?'_. Elsa wasn't near Kristoff's table but she could listen what the girl was saying without any problems.

"Anna! Heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl, all went well. But.. what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the University? It's you senior year, you should follow the lessons!"

"Well today there was nothing interesting, and mom told me that you had a big operation today with.. How you call her? The Ice Queen? Why you call her like that? You don't tell me anything!" Elsa heard the comment _'They call me like that here too.'_.

"Well, she's a little bit of.. cold with people, so I assume this is way they call like that. But she's very good at her job."

"So tell me, tell me! Who is she? Where is she? Is she here?"

"Yes Anna, she's here. See that blonde over there at that table who's reading? It's her."

"Ooh she's pretty." Elsa can't help but to listen, the tone of her voice was too high. '_Wait.. what? She said..'_ "But I don't think she's your type. I think that Mandy..."

"ANNA!" Kristoff blushed and tries to make her shut up. Mandy is a pediatric nurse, who's sitting a few table away from the guy. He's in love with her but she doesn't know yet.

"So cousin... when will you ask her out?" Elsa gets up and goes to the boy, she noticed the redhead's mouth, that was wide open. '_She could swallow a fly if she continues to keep her mouth like that.'_.

"Bijorman. Go check the patient of 24-B and see how are the parameters. I don't want that the heart could have some problems while you're chatting."

"Right on my way. See you Anna."

"Bye bye. Be a good doctor!" Anna turns to the doctor who stands near her. "Hi, you're the boss of Kristoff? Sometimes he's late, but that's because his car is a very old and he doesn't want to change it, he says he wants to wait and save money, but I think it's because the car brings him so many memories-"

"Excuse me, I don't think I can stand here and talk with you, I have patients to check. Have a nice day." And with that Elsa goes away. '_Sure, she talks a lot. They say redheads are a little to... well she has something different'_.

Anna gets up, takes the apple that was in Kristoff's plate and left.

"Elsa Winters... I think it was written on her coat. The name was hidden by her braid. I like her."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hello everyone! I'm writing this story in Italian, but I wanted to let you read it and see what you think about it! Let me know your opinions. I'm sure there will be some mistakes, maybe even more than the other story I'm writing. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Have a nice day everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

Yesterday the little Meggy has received her new heart. Once Kristof finished his shift he went back home, instead Elsa is checking one other time all patients of the day. She enters in the various rooms anche check the drip, the medical record, and asks the patient if it's all right. She exited from the 23-B room, she approaches to the next one.

"Hey doc! You gave me a new heart!" She's about to get up from the bed, but Elsa immediately goes to stop her and now she's standing in front of the bed.

"You shouldn't get out of bed. You should rest."

"You're attentive to me, you acts like an big sister, you could seem surly but you're not. In my opinion it's not true that you have a frozen hear." She hugs Elsa and holds her little head right on the heart of the doctor. "Your heart beats, and you're not even so cold as they say.. you can't be bad, you gave me a heart." Elsa is stunned for a moment, she doesn't know what to do, this is the first time that she's in a situation like that.

"Maybe it's because I don't talk much with others, tell me how do you feel?"

"I'm fine, I'm supposed to sleep but I couldn't. It's okay if you stay a little bit with me? Maybe if they see that you talk with me they stop calling you like that, although I don't think they do it in a bad way. At my school there's this boy Nicholas, who gives nicknames to everyone, but nobody is bothered, because we have fun together."

"Well, sometimes children are more mature than adult people. I'd like to stay here, but I have to finish the round of visits."

"Then I'll wait for you! Finish it and then come back to me!" after a big smile of the little girl, Elsa nods and ends the rounds. She watches the clock '_I don't think she's awake.'_ She goes into the room of Meggy.

"I knew you would have come!"

"What are you doing?" The little girl is sitting cross-legged on the bed and she's looking at a book.

"Homework. Math. I'm here for a month.."

"I could help a bit, but that remains a secret between the two of us, then you go to sleep."

So, she helps the girl with algebra, after almost an hour Meggy falls asleep. Elsa take away the book, she tucks the blankets and she goes away. While leaving she heard the girl sighed a "good night". A nurse watches the doctors with a bit of curiosity.

"Do you need something?" Elsa says. The nurse shakes his head and turns.

The days pass, Meggy is dismissed and there are various operations, Kristoff is always in the OR but few times Elsa allows him to make something significant, probably because she doesn't trust yet his skills.

"Dr. Winters, a word please?" Elsa is in the Chief Kai Summers' Office. It was well lighted, there are some plants and numerous certificates on the walls. There are also photos, but from where she was sitting she couldn't look at them. Not that she's interested.

"How are you here? It's been a month that you're been working here."

"I'm well, this hospital is very well supplied."

"So tell me, why your intern hasn't done an operation as first surgeon with you?"

"I'm not feeling comfortable letting him operate a patient yet."

"Have I already told you that this is a _teaching_ hospital?"

"Yes, you have. And _I'm_ teaching him various techniques."

"But he must operate sooner or later, or he would never become a surgeon. Just let him make a simple one, after all you'll always be there to supervise. I've seen that you have some low relief operations."

"Okay, maybe he'll do one of those. With your permission, I have patients to check." The Chief dismisses her and she leaves.

Although she prefers operates herself, she decided that it's not appropriate to make the chief an enemy of her. She went to the cafeteria where Kristoff is making a coffee break with some others interns.

"Bijorman. Today you'll have your solo operation. I'll be there to supervise. Try not to let me intervene. No mistakes allowed."

"Really!? Thanks you! I won't disappoint you!" Kristoff highlights of joy for the opportunity that Elsa gave him. She looks at him in a neutral way, his friends are cheering him up.

"Bijorman, we have to check the patient in the 13-H room. Say bye to your friends, here." Some of the interns whispered "She's such an Ice Queen, the rumours are real.

Once they reach the patient's room, Elsa let Kristoff handle the whole situation. She knows that he's prepared, he's studying a lot, but she prefers to go cautiously, after all on the operating table there isn't a mannequin, but a person in flesh and blood who has a family and she doesn't want that something could possibly go wrong. After the guy has informed the patient of the procedure, he instructed the nurses about what pre operation's drugs give to the patient.

Once everything was ready they went to the OR number 4. Elsa checked that everything was in order in the room, like her routine. She needs to know that everything was in the right place, and everyone know their roles. While the equip was busy operating, from the room where other surgeons can watch, without their knowledge there was a familiar redheads. She keeps smiling watching her cousin's first operation.

"What are you doing here?" the Chief's approaching the readhead.

"Hi Dad, look! Kristoff's hands are on that men chest."

"Anna, you shouldn't be here, you should be at the University. Skipping class, again?"

"Yeah.. sorry Dad, but I couldn't not seeing my beloved cousin's first solo surgery! He texted me. I _couldn't_ say no. Tomorrow I have lessons, I'll go, pleaseeee let me stay here!"

"Fine, I guess I'll stay too." They hugged each others.

"Is she the Ice Queen?" Anna's looking at the blond standing next to Kristoff with her hands behind her back, and a lovely cap. '_There are snowflakes on it. That's so cute.'_

"Yes, but she's very talented." Anna kept watching every movements the doctors were making. She whispered "I'd like to see her in action."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hi everyone! I've just finished to translate this chapter, what do you think? I hope I made it understandable! I don't know when I'll update, but I'll try not to be to late, everything depends on my skills on translation.

I hope you'll enjoy it. Let me know what your opinions are!

Have a nice day!


	3. Chapter 3

It's been a week since the first solo operation of Kristoff. Elsa didn't have to intervene, everything went smooth as oil and there were no complications post surgery. The blonde doctor remains in front of the Blackboard, where there are written every daily surgery in program. She has only 2 surgeries, a total of only 4 hours in the OR. Maybe it's because she's on duty in the ER. There operations are simple, maybe she could let them handle to Kristoff, so in that way the Chief shouldn't have reason to complain.

"Bijorman, today you're doing this surgeries." The boy looks at her and smiles.

"Thanks, really, you can't understand how much this makes me happy!"

"I'm not sure if you should be glad to open the chest of two patients, but perhaps you're referring to the fact that in his way you'll learn more." And here's that Kristoff's smile disappeared '_She's always colder, is she an ice golem by any chance? It would be possible, her skin is so pale.'_. Elsa approaches the Blackboard and changes the name of the first surgeon from "Dr. Winters, E." to "Dr. Bijorman, K.". At that moment the Chief walks by the two doctors. He stays behind the woman and he's smug.

"Well, I see that here someone starts collecting solo's surgeries. Good work, doctors."

Kristoff goes in the room of the first patient of the day, he explains the procedure to him. Be a surgeon can be a monotonous work, checking medical records, the person, doing examinations, explaining procedures, cutting, sewing, keeping an eye on the parameters, making sure the procedure go well and then dismissing patients. Nevertheless he loves being a doctor, although his new boss is like a robot, he's fine with that. She's a great teacher, meticulous, she wants things to be done as they should be, she's strict but the young intern won't complain, after all he's here to learn.

Once in the OR, after they washed themselves, Kristoff and Elsa are waiting for the anesthesia to have effect. The patient is asleep and Kristoff picks up the scalpel and makes an incision on the chest which had been prepared with tincture of iodine. Elsa stays there, observing every movement, every command of his intern. _'He's learning, good.'_. Once he has sewed up the patient, Elsa goes with Kristoff to inform the family members about how the surgery went. "Everything went well, now let's see how he reacts in post surgery."

There's a break before the next operation, in the ER there are the usual bustle of people, but for now there isn't anything for cardiac surgery. Kristoff went to get a coffee for him and Elsa.

"Dr. Winters?" the woman looks at him. "I think you drink coffee latte, I've got one for you, because I saw that you looked tired."

"I wasn't tired, I was rereading the post operation of this morning, thanks you, but for now I won't drink anything, you can give it to someone else."

_'Does she know that unknowingly she gave me a reason to talk to Mandy?'_ Kristoff tries to hold back a smile and goes to the nurse.

"Hi Mandy.. would you like a coffe latte?" he hands the cup. She smiles.

"Oh Dr. Bijorman, how nice you are, thanks you." she takes a sip of the drink and they sit at a table. "How was your morning? I saw you marked on the Board."

"It went well, all quiet, the patient appears to reacting well, the heart wasn't very stressed during the surgery." they're spending some time chatting with each other. Anyone who watches them would understand immediately that Kristoff is in love with the girl.

A distance of two tables there's Elsa, who's reading, she hears Kristoff laugh with that nurse. '_He shouldn't lose concentration, after the break he must work.'_. She sees the Chief who sits next to her.

"Winters. How is your intern going?"

"He arrives late often," Elsa looks at the boy "but I see that he works hard." Kai smiles.

"He's a guy who puts his heart and his soul into what he does. I'm glad that you're doing what we all expect: teach." Elsa watch her boss without giving him an answer to that statement. She was hired by a University Hospital, but it's not been long since she was the intern. After the chief goes, the doctor returns to his reading, meanwhile Kristoff continues to chat with his beloved Mandy.

The second scheduled surgery of the day goes like the other, without complications, all quiet. Once the family members have been informed, Elsa sends Kristoff in ER to make some medications, for now she doesn't need his assistance. She told him to call her to pager if there's an emergency. She's reading some article of medicine, despite having finished her studies and become an excellent surgeon her preparation will never stop: she has to keep updated. In life you'll be always a student.

Kristoff goes to the ER, telling the head of the department that he's there to help. He goes to do some sutures. The emergency room is one of the most loved place by interns (and residents too): everyone is looking for the right patient (the more critical or with something odd) and take that particular case. It's like being at the market. Nevertheless, they're all very human. Before Kristoff began his shift, in ER arrived an ambulance with a man who into his neck there was a screwdriver, he lost much blood but he was relatively stable. Unfortunately for the young assistant of Winters, he hasn't arrived in time in order to follow that case. _'Damn.. Maybe with the next ambulance will come something interesting, perhaps something cardiac, so it's easier for me to get in the OR!'_. A nurse hands him a medical record and tells him to go to the bed 3-S, he starts reading the folder. Fall, suspected fracture.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Bijorman, I'll be your doctor." He raise his eyes from the folder, he prepares the stethoscope. He stayed speechless, wide-eyed.

"Hey cousin.. hello!" the redhead starts laughing. "Here I am. To see you at work!"

"Anna! What the hell happened to you!?" Kristoff begins to examine her cousin's leg. It's swollen and purple, probably a compound fracture. He cuts her jeans and observes the wound, there's a bit of blood, but only from bruises.

"I was trying to reach a box, you know that I moved, and at one point I lost balance and I was falling, nothing serious! Bur I couldn't get up so I had to hitch a ride and come here.. You know I'm such a clumsy, it's nothing serious, just give me some painkiller and I come home and I'll not waste your time."

Kristoff takes the leg up and downstream. Fracture of the right tibia. He tried to align the limb but he's noticed a judder from Anna. "Anna, you have a fracture, we must take an X-Ray. When you were falling have you hit your head? Have you got the pills? Why have you lost balance?" he takes the stethoscope again, he's about to listen to the heart and lungs.

"No I don't think that I hit the head." Kristoff arched his eyebrows. He called a nurse.

"Call Dr. Winters and say to come to me. Now. Anna you're such a klutz."

Elsa was very interested in a cardiac surgery's article when his pager sounds. "Bijorman.". She gets up and goes to the ER, she sees her intern who was about to check the heart beat of the patient. _'Redhead. She's familiar. Maybe I've seen her before?'_

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everyone! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I'm trying to make it as understandable as possible, if you don't understand something, please feel free to tell me. (hopefully there aren't too much mistakes)

I'm enjoying writing this story, maybe it's because I know a bit how things works in the hospitals (well I know better how an ER works, being a first aid volunteer) and maybe because I like medicine everything in between. Btw, thanks for spending your time reading this, I really appreciate it.

For the ones who are reading "I Will Never Let You Go" : probabily in these days I'll update it (hopefully my imagination doesn't leave me!)

Have a nice day! See you at the next update.


	4. Chapter 4

"What have we got?" she lets move Kristoff away and she's listening to the heart beat of the young girl who giggled. She rose an eyebrow.

"It's cold.. anyway it's nothing serious Doc." Anna's about to move, when she feels a hand pressed gently, but at the same time with some pressure, on her chest, so the girl will stay still.

"Her beat is a few arrhythmic. Miss.."

"Anna Summers." Elsa's looking at her '_Isn't it the same last name of the chief?_'. Anna noticed her look. She's smiling. _'She's confused. Cute.'_

"Well, miss Summers, now Dr. Bijorman will examine you." She checks the medical record. "Fracture of the right tibia. Dr. Bijorman, a word please."

"Ouch, is Kristoff in some kind of trouble?" Anna chuckles and Kristoff sends her something like an evil stare.

"Bijorman, why did you call me for a consultation? The patient has a fracture."

"She had some heart problems a few years ago and I wanted that you gave a look. She's the daughter of the chief." She looks at him coldly._ 'So she's the chief's daughter.'_. She'd like to tell to her intern that he could have examined the patient without problems, he's got skills. It's not that because she's the daughter of the chief she can have some privileged treatment. She turns to the redhead who's smiling. '_This girl makes me feel uncomfortable..'_.

"Fine. Make the X-Rays. Leg and chest, just to make sure. The procedure is the same: same tests, same exams. Make sure there aren't problems. I'll go inform the chief that his daughter is in the hospital." Elsa is about to turn and leave when she feels an hand on her arm.

"No! Please, don't let my dad know.. I don't want to make him worry." As soon as Anna realize that she just took the arm of the woman in front of her, she releases it immediately, blushing.

"I'm sorry, but the family must be informed. It's the rule." And with that Elsa goes to the Chief's office.

Meanwhile Anna is taken to make the X-Rays, Dr. Summers is talking about his daughter's situation.

"So, she has a fracture."

"A suspected one, I'm waiting for the X-Ray's results. Bijorman should bring them to me as soon as he'll got them."

"Okay, she'll be your patient."

"Sir, with all due respect, there's nothing cardiac. A heart beat a few arrhythmic, but nothing more."

"Dr. Winters, my daughter has had heart problems, and I'd like you, as a cardiac surgeon of this hospital and one of the best in the nation, to keep an eye on my daughter. Because as you know, the hospital policy forbids me to be the doctor of my family." She doesn't want to have to deal with a case that it's no within her competence, but nonetheless it is the chief of surgery who tells her to do so. And she should listen to him. After all it was him who gave her a job.

"Fine, Sir. She'll be a patient of Bijorman and mine."

"No, he can't be on this case, he's her first cousin, and I prefer only you. He will replace your shift in the ER while you're with my daughter."

_'__So, I have a single patient. The daughter of the chief. I've just become a babysitter.'_

"You can go. I need to tell my wife that Anna is in the hospital." Esa walkes out the office and goes to Kristoff.

The boy was about to call Elsa when she arrived. He handled her the exam's result.

"She has a bad fracture, I think there'll be needed a surgery." The woman looked at the image. The bone was just under the skin, however there's a internal bleeding caused by a bone's fragment that pierced a vein.

"And she wanted to go home? Call orthopaedics, we'll operate and treat this bleeding. Go to inform the chief. I'm bringing her in the OR."

"I'm not coming?"

"No, the chief has assigned you to the ER, you need to replace me." Kristoff looks puzzled and goes to Dr. Summers. _'She has to deal Anna alone? Good luck.'_. Elsa reaches Anna, she's with nurses. You can clearly see that she's in pain.

"Miss Summers, we have to perform surgery right away. You have a internal bleeding, if you keep try to move your leg you'll make it worse. As soon as the nurses get you ready, we'll take you to the OR."

"Ah... so it's serious?" Anna looks worried. Elsa's looking her into the eyes, turquoise ones, in the ER they were radiant but now they are dark, full of fear. The doctor comes closer to her, but there's always some distance between the two of them.

"You're losing blood due to a laceration of a vein. But there's nothing to worry about, we'll fix the damage and you'll be fine." Anna is watching at her intensely.

"You'll be in the Operation Room with Kristoff?"

"Dr. Bijorman won't be in the room with me."

"What? And why?" Now Anna looks angry. _'I could say the same thing, miss Summers.'_

"Your father decided that I was the one who would take care of you. You can talk about it with him," nurses interrupt for a second Elsa with a nod to her saying that everything was ready. "After the operation. You'll be asleep so you won't feel anything." Anna nods and they take her to the OR.

The chief and Kristoff look the operation from the room, the boy wanted to be there with Elsa, though it's not a case of Cardiology he would have liked to operate and give a hand. After all it was her cousin the one on the operating table. Anna's father looks every more without saying a word. After a while he's called out the room because his wife Gerda had just arrived at the hospital and she was worried. Once the operation ended, Elsa went to Anna's family in order to let them know that everything went well. As soon as she finished her speech she's hugged by the girl's mother. The doctor is like paralyzed.

"Thanks you, I was so worried for my little Anna! Saw Kai? I told you she wasn't supposed to do things alone! She took your stubbornness." Elsa would desperately that the woman left her, but it seemed that it was out of question for now. The chief blushed from a little embarrassment.

"Honey.. you know how is our daughter! The important thing is that she's fine, don't worry. She's a excellent doctor by her side." Elsa felt chief's gaze upon herself.

"Thanks God you were there." Then she made a little distance between them and Elsa sighed in relief. "Wow, you're such a beautiful woman. And what a nice cap you have! Are those snowflakes? Anna loves them! I hope she's seen them: their sight would let her be less worried." Elsa feels embarrassed by the sudden attention. _'Okay, let me Ms. Summers, leave me, right now.'_ Elsa escaped from the woman's arms trying not to seem rude. She doesn't like to have physical contact with other people.

"Excuse me, I need to check on some things." If she could run she would have done it right in that moment, but she wasn't too professional to do something like that.

* * *

**Author's Note: ** Hello world! I hope you'll enjoy the chapter! Anna and Elsa will have their first real conversation soon.

Thanks for your support, feel free to let me know what your opinions are! Have a nice day all of you!


	5. Chapter 5

Anna woke up a few hours after the surgery. She's looking around the room and it's a bit dark, then she realize looking at the window that it's night. But she doesn't know what time is it. It's quite, there are fewer nurses, she has never been at the hospital after the sunset.

"You're awake. How are you feeling?" the girl looks up and recognizes the blonde in front of her. The doctor is checking on her injury with a focused look on her face. The doctor's eyes start to look up to the redhead and suddenly Anna starts to blush and be a bit agitated.

_'__Oh no! My hair! They must be a mess..'_ she's about to fix up her hair when she's stopped by the voice of the woman in front of her.

"You shouldn't be concerned about your hair, miss Summer. You have slept more then you should have to. Your mother waited until the end of visiting-time and then she came back home. I don't know if your dad is still in the hospital." Elsa takes the medical record. "The surgery went well, we stopped the bleeding. It wasn't nothing to serious." Anna's looking at her as if she's waiting for something. The blonde doesn't understand what's going on and she's starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with the situation. "There is something wrong? Are you feeling pain? Should I give you some pain killers?" the redhead shakes her head.

"You haven't told me yet your name. Your braid covers up the name on your coat."

"I'm Doctor Elsa Winters." Anna smiles. _'Why is she smiling? What's funny?'_. The patient sees the confusion on the blonde's face.

"You have a nice name. Winters, it suits you, you know?"

_'__Because of the all Ice Queen stuff?_' Elsa grimaces. She hears Anna's chuckles. Has Elsa just said it aloud?

"No, it's not because of how the other call you. I noticed that you have a beautiful cap with snowflakes on it and your skin is so pale. No wait.. I didn't mean that you look pale as a dead body! Oh God.. I didn't mean it neither, I wanted to say that you have a wonderful skin, it looks like soft as the snow in the early morning.. it's awkward, no, not you're awkward, I am awkward, you're gorgeous, no wait what?" the girl's face becomes redder and redder. _'Anna you should shut up! Kristoff tells you always.. oh God if he find out about this he will mock you about this forever! I need to learn how to stop my mouth..'._ Elsa is speechless and a bit shocked by the young girl's words. Nobody told her something like that, well, when she was at high school there were some boys who tried to hook up with her but without success. This is the first time after a long time that something like this happens to her. The doctor doesn't know what to do, she stays there, motionless, looking at the redhead. She's feeling some warm building up her face. _'Am I.. blushing? What? Impossible... There's no way that I'm blushing.. She's so red, like if she's on fire. Get over yourself Elsa, say something!'_

"Tomorrow morning we'll do some exams in order to make sure that your healing process goes as it should. By your father's request we'll check up your heart too." Elsa looks at her watch, trying to regain some control on herself and she realizes only now that it's late and in theory her shift finished hours ago. "Get some rest."

"You too, you look very tired. Good night." Anna's lips give to the blonde a genuine smile and Elsa goes away, without any other words. The redhead didn't want to create a uncomfortable situation for the doctor.

While Dr. Winters is finishing her work and is about to go home, Anna looks at the window of her room. Her last thoughts are about the stars that she'd like to see but can't, because she has to stay in bed, and about the icy blue eyes of her doctor.

Once it's morning, Anna's father goes to his daughter's room, to know how she's doing. He finds her sleeping. His daughter has never been a morning person, so the hospital life will be a challenge to her: wake ups and medical examinations early in the morning and nothing to do. Anna is a girl who can't stay still, she's like a child on a sugar rush 24/7. For sure, she'll find a way to get up and leave the bed or at least she'll try to corrupt some nurse to stay with her and take her for a wheelchair ride in the hospital. Kai gets closer to his daughter, he wakes her up touching gently her nose. He smiles as soon as he sees his daughter's eyes opening.

"Mh.. morning dad.. What time is it? I want to sleep.."

"Good morning Anna, it's 7:30, the doctor comes here to check on you soon, and I thought it was better that I was the one waking you up. How are you feeling?" Her father caresses her hair for a bit before she tries to sit.

"I'm feeling well, I wanted to sleep more though.. Ohi, why wasn't Kristoff in the ER with Dr. Winters?"

"You're my daughter, I want the best for you, and she is. I'm not saying that your cousin isn't good at his job, but I prefer her as your doctor. And Kristoff has to make experience, so he's replacing temporarily Dr. Winters checking up her patients, while she's busy with you."

Anna sighs, she wanted her cousin to be her doctor, but when her father decides something there's no way to make him change his mind, probably she got her stubbornness from him. With Kristoff she could have more chances to go around the hospital and not stay in the bed all day long. But with Dr. Winters, Anna doesn't think that this is an available option. The redhead has noticed right away the blonde's professionalism, she takes her job seriously maybe this is the reason why she has a feeling that there's something missing in the doctor: fun. To Anna, Elsa seems so tense, and the redhead thinks that the blonde should loosen up a bit. Focus only on the work isn't too much healthy.

Not long after the father said bye to her daughter, the nurses start to check up Anna waiting the Dr. Winters' coming.

Anna was chatting and joking with the nurses when at one point the air in the room changed. Where shortly before there was relax now it seems there's some tension. (Positively or not, she doesn't know yet) Elsa is surprised by this change in the room after her coming. She chooses to not give too much thought on the situation.

"Good morning Miss Summers, how are you feeling? Any pain?"

"Morning Doc! No, I'm feeling great, the pain killers work perfectly."

Elsa comes closer to the redhead's leg in order to check the wound and the stitches, she wants to be sure that the girl doesn't get infection. Anna jolts for a moment at the contact with the cold finger of the doctor. It's not a reaction to the pain, although she felt a mild discomfort (probably due to the stitches that pull), but this sensation is from that contact, short-term between her skin and Elsa's fingers while removing the bandage. As if there had been a slight electric shock, but it wasn't one of those unpleasant.

Satisfied that the wound seems to heal as it should, Dr. Winters takes the medical record and starts to read it and fill it out, telling the nurses which medication the patient will take. "The wound seems to heal without problems, Later today we'll do some leg and chest's X-rays." Elsa marks the time of the end of the visit on the medical record and exits the room.

While the doctor goes out, Anna looks at her and hears the nurses mumble something but can't understand what they're saying. Probably something relating the blonde's attitude.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the delay, I had some issues with my computer and internet.. But I managed to upload this chapter! I hope you'll enjoy it. Thanks so much for reading it and your support. Feel free to let me know your opinions! If there are some mistakes I'm sorry.. but I hope I managed to make it understandable.

Next week I think I won't be able to update (finally I have my holiday time :') )


	6. Chapter 6

Anna keeps her eyes on the nurses, she managed to find a way for listening. She's asking herself why they say such things about Dr. Winters. According to Anna, the blonde seems a nice person. The group of nurses is at the door's threshold, with some safe-distance from Anna's bed, they were making sure that the doctor wasn't near them, they don't want any kind of problems with the Ice Queen.

"You know, I heard that she moved from the last hospital because of a scandal between her and the Chief of Cardiology." One of them said, trying to keep his voice not too loud.

"Oh really? What kind of scandal?" A girl of the group said a bit too loud making the redhead more curious.

"Sexual! Someone saw them in one room, and she had to quit the job." The same nurse who had spoken at first, answered to his friends. The taller one chuckles thinking about something and then he speaks.

"Well, she's hot, despite being the Ice Queen. I bet she's a tiger in bed, have you seen her boobs? Gods, I'd do everything for fuck them."

Unbeknownst to the nurses, Anna is listening to everything that come out from those mouth. They keeps saying other things like that, making comments about the doctor's body, their fantasies. She can't believe in what her ears are hearing. _'What the hell..? I don't think she has such a reputation, she's nice, and dad would never give a job to one who fucked her superior. These are just gossips. Nothing more.'_ A little after this conversation they walked out from the redhead's room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

In the meanwhile, Elsa is in her office, working on her patient's medical record. Every time the girl makes a test or a check-up, the doctor has to write the result of those and give the papers to the Chief, that in this case is also the father of the patient. She's meticulous in her work, but she's very quick too. It's strange, in someone's opinion being quick in writing or making a test could be "dangerous" because the doctor could skip or miss something. But this isn't the case of Dr. Winters.

She's just finished writing the last paragraph of the medical record when Dr. Summers entered the room.

"Good morning Dr. Winters, I don't know if you heard me knocking.."

"Oh, morning Dr. Summers, I was finishing this papers, sorry I must have been too focused. What can I do for you?"

"Have you finished with those? I wanted to know how Anna is. Are you going to check her heart today?"

"Yes, everything seems going well. Her injury is healing as it should. No worries and yes, today I'm doing her an ECG, after I checked on her blood pressure. Then I was thinking about some X-Ray, or a magnetic resonance."

"Good, I'll see you when it's time to you, to make these exams."

"With all due respect, Sir, I don't think it's appropriate. You're the father of the patient, and, being her doctor, I can't allow family in the same room where I'm making test to the patient. It's unprofessional. Honestly, I don't care if you are her father and want to be sure everything goes well. You choose me as her doctor. You think I'm qualified enough for taking care of your daughter. You told me you wanted the best, you told me I was. So here I am, doing what I'm best at. My job." Kai looks at her with a bit of surprise in his eyes. It was the first time that one of his employees talk to him like that. It wasn't the first time that one member of his family is in the hospital, and when it happened the doctors were always willing to let the Chief take part of the examination. He knows that Dr. Winters isn't like the others. He's glad to see how she takes seriously her job. He doesn't like too much being told in that way, but he's happy to be treated like a family member for once for real. Sometimes it's good not to be just the Chief.

"Good, if you need anything just ask. I'll leave you with your work. I need all of your concentration on my daughter." And with that he exits from the room. She's left alone in her study, watching at the closed door. Her office isn't big, well organized, there aren't pictures, on the contrary of the Chief's office. She has no idea how the other doctors' office are, she thinks only about herself. She has this rule: never be too close to anyone in a workplace. Just keep everything in a professional level.

The only personal object she has in her desk is a little snow globe, a gift from her mother for her 12th birthday. That was one of her best days of her life. She's born on the 19th of December, every year she waited for that date just to be able to go at the ice rink and skating. When she was little her parents brought her to the ice rink of her city and her mother tough her how to skate, and the little Elsa was really talented. If she hadn't become a surgeon, she would have wanted to be a ice-skater. She always loved winter, the snow and the ice. Unfortunately on her 12th birthday didn't snow, she was a bit upset, but her parents had a surprise for her: they brought her to a new building in town which she wasn't aware: it was a new winter-sport center, where it was possible to make snow. As soon as Elsa entered in the building she was speechless, there were snow everywhere in there, even if outside it was sunny. After spending all day there, they went to a restaurant, as usual, with her parents' colleagues and friends, she didn't have friends, so she had that kind of company. As the day ended they came back home, after her father said goodnight to the blonde, her mother Katherine stayed in the room for a little while with a little package in her hand, she gave it to her. Elsa was surprised, her parents didn't give her a lot of gifts (no matter if it was her birthday or Christmas or whatever). She unpacked her gift and saw a little snow globe: inside there was a young girl who was ice-skating in a lake. When she had shaken the object she saw little white snowflakes coming around the girl. Elsa smiled shyly to her mother, who said something that remain forever in her mind. "When you feel upset, because there's no snow outside, just shake it. It will make you smile, my dearest princess." For a little girl those words didn't mean anything more, but now, as a grown-up woman, she understand what her mother was trying to say to her. Every time Elsa is upset, blocked, alone, she looks at her snow globe and she remembers her mother's words and her smile. Even if it's been a lot since she last saw her, she knows that her mother is always at her side, watching over her. She hopes that she managed to make her parents proud of her.

Before she exits her office, she looked one more time at the object, she shakes it, and then she leaves closing the door. She walks to the redhead in order to take her blood pressure and make the ECG.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hello to everybody! I'm so sorry for the late update, as you know, I was in holiday, and thanks for the understanding and patience you showed. I wanted to post this chapter earlier but I had to cover a shift of one my colleagues. So here I am. I hope you'll like it! I hope I didn't make too much mistakes.

I decided to make Elsa's birthday on the 19th of December, because here in Italy that was the date the movie came to theaters.

Enjoy your day, wherever you are, and feel free to let me know your opinions, they're always well accepted. Thanks for your support.


	7. Chapter 7

Elsa walks in Anna's room, the nurses aren't there. She looks around and sighs.

"Good morning Miss Summers, I'll check your blood pressure and then I'll make the ECG, the electrocardiography." She takes the blood pressure meter and place it on patient's left arm. She places her stethoscope between the cuff and the elbow and she starts to blow up the cuff to restrict blood flow. She keeps her eyes on the blood pression cuff's dial to record the maximum blood pressure, then she starts to deflate the cuff and records the minimum blood pressure.

Elsa doesn't like using the digital blood pressure meter, she's old-school, just like her parents taught her when she was little. Every morning and evening they checked each other's blood pressure. It was a routine that remained in Elsa's life.

"Doc, but shouldn't a nurse do this thing?" Anna interrupts Elsa's thoughts.

"It should be. But I don't see any nurse, and I need to make these exams, I don't like to delay things." The blonde takes off the blood pressure meter, and gets the electrocardiograph.

"Wait, are you going to take the test?"

"Yes, there is any problem? I'm sure you know how it works."

"Yeah.. I'm familiar with that machine.." The redhead starts blushing, and Elsa seems confused. _'She's familiar with it, so what's the big deal?'_ as the doctor is approaching to take the electrodes the realisation hits her.

"If you feel uncomfortable with me doing this, I'll call a nurse." Anna blushes more, and then nods silently.

"All right." Elsa exits from the room and calls a nurse, letting her do the ECG. The doctor stays out, watching at the clock. With this girl there are always first times. In her entire carrier it's the first time that a patient asks for someone else for the ECG. Maybe she's shy. During this exam the patient is a bit naked, because the electrodes needs to be attached to the bare skin, mostly on the chest of course, the other ones are on the wrists and ankles. Elsa sighs, it's not the first time she has a shy patient, so again, what is the big deal? It's not like she would grope her, she's respectful. Not like other persons she knows. At the thought Elsa grunts, she doesn't like remember that, that's why she came here to the Arendelle General Hospital, to avoid those memories.

The nurse exits from Anna's room. Elsa enters and checks the ECG graph paper. She notices the Atrial Fibrillation Paroxysmal, she knew about the pathology, she read the medical record of the younger girl.

"Tell me, from how long do you have this AF?"

"Since I was 21. It's been almost 4 years. I had a heart failure, due to hypothermia. I was in mountain with my family and Kristoff, enjoying our winter holidays, Kristoff and I went to the lake with his little brother. They wanted to play on the ice lake, I wasn't sure, I didn't know how to skate, but I decided to go with them anyway. We played for a while, making snowmen, skating, it was snowing but suddenly the weather got worse and the ice cracked under the feet of Kristoff's brother, I acted by impulse and I was the closer to him, I managed to push him away, he didn't fell in the cold water, but I did. The ice wasn't resistant enough, Kristoff and his brother had to walked away from me, he sent his brother to call someone's help. Kristoff tried to help me, he handle me a stick, but I didn't have the strength, after a while I couldn't feel my legs, honestly I have no idea how much I stayed in the water, I lost consciousness and when I woke up I was in an hospital bed. They told me my heart stopped for a while, and they managed to bring me back during an open heart surgery just for luck." Anna's eyes are focused on the window, Elsa can clearly see the hurt in the redhead's eyes.

"I am sorry for what happened." Elsa manages to say after a while. "In the last period, how is it going? Do the pills help?"

"Yeah. Things are better." Anna clears her voice, she doesn't want to seem weak in front of the older woman. "So, how is my heart?"

"Considering your pathology, it does its job. But, that doesn't mean you don't have to do other exams. I want to do an X-Ray as soon as a room is available." She can hear the grunt from the younger girl.

"Is it necessary?"

"Yes, it is. I have to do all the exams I need. Plus, your father wants to make sure everything is okay."

"Fine. I guess I have no choice then."

"No, you haven't." Elsa's about to exit from Anna's room, when the redhead stops her.

"Dr. Winters, may I ask you something?" Elsa turns facing Anna.

"You may."

"Why did you left the Southerisland Hospital? My dad told me it's a great hospital, especially in your field." Anna says the last words with a whisper. Elsa's looking at her. _'Why does she want do know? This is not a question to ask.'_ Despite her desire to not answer, she does it anyway.

"I received a better offer." It isn't the all truth, but why should she tell her patient about the real reason of the transfer? It's a personal question. And she exits from the room.

Anna looks at her while Elsa's walking away. She knows that the blonde didn't tell her the truth, not because of what the nurses said, but because she knows that. She doesn't know why, but she knows that her doctor isn't telling her everything._ 'Well, Anna, you are her patient, what were you expecting?'_

Before to check if there is a X-Ray room available, Elsa goes to the restroom. She locks the door. She lifts her shirt and looks at her bandage. "It's time to change it." She whispers to herself while she takes off her shirt and lower a bit her pants. Slowly and carefully she removes the bandage. Her eyes blocked at her injury on her lower abdomen. "That bastard."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hello everyone! Here another chapter, I hope you'll like it. Thanks for your support. Feel free to let me know what you think about it!

Have a nice day

Christy


	8. Chapter 8

Elsa changes her bandage and fixes up her shirt. She unlocks the door and checks if there's anyone near and reaches the waste bin. Her mobile phone rings and she looks at the ID caller. She sighs and press the green bottom.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Elsa. How are you doing?" the male voice says to her. While she's talking to him, she goes to her office. Luckily it's not too far away from the restroom.

"I'm fine. I'm at work, why are you calling me, Marshall?"

"I called you because I wanted to remind you that the trial is tomorrow. I know it's not easy for you and I know there are enough proof to keep him in jail for a long time, but you know that the judge needs your deposition."

"I know. I am the only one who have spoken about what he was doing to me and to the other women at the hospital. When I need to be there?"

"The trial begins at 9am. I'll come over you at 8am, is that okay for you?"

"I need to talk to my Chief and ask him a permission to come to work later."

"Honestly I would recommend you to take a day off. It won't be easy for you, he will be in the courtroom.."

"Marshall, I am really grateful to you, for what you are doing for me, but I think after the trial I'll need to distract myself, and I believe that working is what I'll need."

"All right Elsa. Do what you think it's better. You're like a little sister to me, you know that. I've seen you grew up, our parents were best friends, it's the least I can do. You know you can always count on me."

"Thank you. I need to go back to work now. See you tomorrow."

"Of course, bye Elsa. Take care, alright?"

"Sure." The phone call ends and she puts her phone in her pocket. The blonde looks at her snow globe and shakes it. _'I hope everything is going to be okay soon.' _She has to talk to Dr. Summers later, but right now she needs to focus on her patient. After a while she exits from her office and goes to check if there is an X-Ray room available. Lucky her, there is one. She books it and walks to Anna's room.

Kristoff has his break from the ER and he's spending his free time with Anna. They talking about everything and nothing.

"So, have you asked Mandy out?" Anna asks him before taking a sip from her glass of water.

"Not yet.. I'm too busy with my shifts in the ER."

"Bullshit. You're afraid that she says no! But I think she'd like to go out on a date with you!"

Kristoff starts blushing. He likes a lot Mandy and he would like to go out with her, but his cousin is right: he is afraid of being rejected. He doesn't even know if she's interested in him. She is nice to him, they talk when they have time, but he doesn't understand if there's a possibility or not. He's not a lover expert, but some of his friends are.

"Sooner or later I'll ask her out, don't worry. So, how is your hospital life with the Ice Queen?"

Anna smiles as her mind recalls the blonde doctor's icy blue eyes.

"It's okay. She isn't that cold, you know? I think that she just need to loosen up a bit, she's too focus on her work." The cousins don't know that Elsa is just outside the door, she isn't entered yet, but she can hear what they're saying.

"Well, she's a doctor, Anna. She needs to be focus."

"Yes, I know that. I'd like to see her being more relaxed, you know? She seems so tense sometimes." She doesn't look at him, she keeps her eyes on her hands, thinking about how could she help her doctor to feel better. Anna has this feeling that the blonde doesn't feel comfortable yet in this hospital. It's like the older woman has some problems to familiarize with everyone else in the building. The redhead wants to help, she wants to see a smile from her doctor, she doesn't know why, but she thinks that Elsa would be cuter if she smiles, it's not that she isn't cute now.

"Kristoff, do you know why she moved from that hospital?" her eyes are still on her hands. He looks at her with a bit of concern. He thinks that her cousin starts feeling something for his boss, he doesn't know if it's about friendship or something more. He knows Anna, she's the kind of girl surrounded with a lot of people, she has this energy with her that makes everyone feel good when they're in her presence.

"I heard some rumours. They say that there was a sexual scandal between her and her chief. Honestly I don't know if that's true, but I don't believe on rumours."

"I don't think she's that kind of woman, she doesn't seem a-" they stop talking when the blonde walks in the room looking at them, making her presence clear. Icy blue eyes focus on turquoise ones. The blonde's eyes seem to not let any emotion show. It's hard for Anna to understand if the doctor heard the cousins talking.

"There is a room available for the X-Ray. Dr. Bijorman, how are my other patients doing?"

"They're fine. When my shift in the ER finishes, I'll make the rounds."

"Good. Miss Summers, we're going to do the X-Ray in a few minutes." The redhead nods and Elsa walks away to call a nurse. Anna looks at Kristoff who sighs.

"Wow, that was close.. Do you think she heard us?"

"I don't know, I hope not. She's my boss, I don't want any problem and she's pretty discreet. I think it's better if I go, see you later!" he exits from the room and a nurse walks inside in order to preparing Anna for the X-Ray. She sits on the wheelchair and they go to the room to make the exam. During the X-Ray everyone is quiet, there isn't too much talking, only the usual "stay still" now and then. Anna hopes Elsa didn't hear anything, but if she did she just keeps her mouth shut.

While Anna is still for the X-Ray, Elsa watches the imagines. Anna's heart seems to be okay, despite its conditions. She's glad the pills do their jobs, this means that aside from the broken leg, Anna is fine and soon she can be sent home. The doctor asks to do the X-Ray to the leg too.

After the exam, they return to the redhead's room. Anna is again on her bed, watching at her doctor who is writing something on her medical record. She'd like to read what is written on it. Maybe tonight when there aren't people around she can grab and read it. _'She has always that expression on her face, it's cute the way her eyebrows arch when she's focused. How old is she? I guess she isn't too much older than me. Kristoff is 2 year older than me. I don't think she's 30 yet. She's younger.' _

"So, how am I doing?" her turquoise eyes never goes away from the blonde.

"Aside from your broken leg, you're doing good. You'll be home soon."

"Yeah! That's great, we should celebrate, I could eat a pizza and drink a beer-"

"You could, but you shouldn't. For now, you need to eat and drink what the hospital gives you, once you're home for a while you need to not drink alcoholic drinks because you'll be under drugs. You shouldn't-"

"Doc, I know. I can't drink beer or wine or other stuff. I'm already on drugs, remember?" the redhead places her hand on her heart. "Because of it, I can't get drunk. Plus, my father is a doctor, he wouldn't let me drink something I shouldn't. I don't need another parent, you know? I'm only happy that everything is fine, is it too much if I'd like to eat something different? It's not like tomorrow I have a surgery." Anna's eyes never leaves Elsa's. The blonde sighs.

"I didn't want to sound like a parent." She looks at the younger girl in front of her, she can see clearly that she doesn't enjoy hospital food, how can someone blame her? "I am your doctor, I prefer you to eat hospital food, but since you don't have any surgery," _'Am I really suggesting this? What's happening to me?'_ " you could eat something else." _'There. I did it. There's no turning back.'_ Anna's eyes are wide open just like her mouth. She can't believe that her doctor, the Ice Queen, the one who is so professional, let her eat some pizza. That's a miracle.

"R-really?"

"I'm sure you heard me. Just, don't let be caught from your father. I'd like to not have any problems with him."

"Well.. you could eat with me.." she says so quiet that it is just like a whisper. But Elsa manages to hear her words.

"I am sorry.. I don't think it's appropriate for a doctor to eat with her patient."

"No, right. That totally makes sense. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Elsa is about to tell her that she didn't make her feel that way but she's stopped by the redhead words. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit tired. I'm sure you have a lot of doctor's stuff to do." Elsa closes her mouth and nods. Leaving the room, but before she exits the room she looks back at the girl who is watching out her window. The blonde sighs and goes away.

_'__I'm just acted like I always do. So, why I feel like I did something wrong..?' _Elsa is in front of her chief's office. She knocks.

"Come in." She walks in, closing the door behind her. "Oh, Dr. Winters, what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to ask for a permission. Tomorrow morning I have some personal stuff to do, which can't be postponed. I think I'll be back at work in the afternoon."

"Is it because of the trial?" Elsa looks at Kai with eyes open.

"How…"

"I received a call from your lawyer. He informed me about it. You have my permission. Take the day off, you don't need to come to work tomorrow."

"Sir, I would-"

"I've already made my decision. Now, how is my daughter?" Elsa starts to talk about Anna's exams.

* * *

It's 8 o'clock in the morning. The doorbell rings and Elsa goes to open the door to her lawyer.

"Morning Elsa, how are you?"

"Hi Marshall. I'm fine. I want Hans Southerisland in jail for the rest of his life."

"He will pay for what he did to you."

"And to the other women." He nods and walks her friend and client to his car. He opens the door for her and reaches the driver seat. He looks to the blonde. He remember when she was 3 years old playing with his toys in her parent's garden, he was 10 back then. And now she's going to be 28 years old in a few months. She's been through a lot. They put on the seatbelts and he starts the engine.

"This is going to be a long morning." Elsa says looking at the road.

"I know. I'm just sad that this thing happened to you. You didn't deserved that."

"I should have known. Since the first day I knew something wasn't right with him. I should have never accepted that job in his father's hospital."

They drive to the courthouse for the trial in silence. They know what Elsa has to say to the judge. He knows how much this must be difficult to her, but when he looks in Elsa's eyes he can clearly see her father. She's grown up so much and her determination is the same that her father had. Despite everything Marshall knows that Joseph would have been proud of his little girl.

Marshall finds a free parking lot and stops the car. They walks in the courtroom.

"Ready?" He doesn't look at Elsa, he knows that her eyes are focused on someone else right now.

"Ready. Let's put an end to this story." She looks at Hans who is handcuffed, there are two policemen next to him.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the late, busy days. I hope you enjoy the chapter. As you can see it's longer than the other ones, finally I have more time and I know some of you (if not everyone) wanted longer chapter. So, I wanted to ask you dear readers if there is something that makes you confuse just tell me. Do you have any problems reading this stories? I know there are some mistakes somewhere, as I think you know, I don't speak English and these are the first times where I write something important in English, so feel free to let me know your opinions. I received complaint about the length. When in the other chapters I wrote some background story in past tense, did you have any problems? Did that make you confuse or something? Are you comfortable with how my writing is?

Right, Marshall is our Marshmallow, I had to put him in this story, I love that big golem of ice and snow :D

I want to thanks Paotzel for the cover image (If I manage to upload it.. xD), I really appreciate your drawing :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **I've changed the rate because in this chapter there's a description of sexual abuse, if you're uncomfortable reading it (I tried to be more delicate as possible) skip the part in italic and where there's # (in the beginning and in the end of the scene). There's also a violent scene (not too much I think), as before, if you're uncomfortable skip it the italic's part and where there's #.

* * *

Elsa is waiting outside the courtroom, in a waiting room drinking a black tea. She keeps telling herself everything is going to be ok and soon this story will be over. Marshall is next to her, he doesn't say a word to his friend, in a few minutes the trial begins and Elsa needs to stay focus on what she's going to say to the judge and to the court.

Marshall is called and told that it's time to begin. It's 9 o'clock, there are a few people in the room, Elsa is grateful that the all story was handled with caution and without letting the media know everything. This story isn't well known to everyone only because Hans' father doesn't want too much problems, he doesn't want that his hospital woud have been seen in a different way by the population, he tried to keep things as quiet as possible, only for that reason.

Elsa is sitting with her lawyer, like Hans who has his lawyer. The judge begins to say why there's this trial. Elsa is called to the witness stand to depose. She takes the oath of telling only the truth.

"Ms. Winters, you're here today because you pressed charges on Mr. Southerisland. Could you tell to the judge and to the court why you make this formal accusation?" Marshall begins.

"Yes, I can. I made this formal accusation because Mr. Southerisland raped me and made me do sexual and not only things without my consensus." Hans looks at her smiling, Elsa hates that face, she hopes she won't see him again. Marshall gives her an understanding look and an apologetic smile.

"Could you tell us what he did to you the first time?" Elsa is becoming always more pale, if that is possible. The judge notices her discomfort and says "Take your time, Ms. Winters."

She takes a deep breath, close her eyes for a minute. She remembers very well those days, like it was yesterday. She opens her eyes, looks to the court, then to the judge and finally she focus her look to Hans. The blonde doctor begins telling that story. The one she wants only to forget.

_#_

_She has finished her medical studies at the University, she graduated earlier, that was an advantage of being the daughter of two important surgeon of the country. She was one of the best students and doctor William Southerisland wanted her in his hospital. She stayed there for a few years, learning and teaching. Her last year of being a surgeon there was the worst period of her entire life, maybe worst then when her parents died. _

_The 13th son of Dr. Southerisland, Hans, after working for a few months in an hospital out of the city, came back. Since the beginning he showed an interest on Elsa, which she didn't like it. She didn't know back then why, but she knew that this Hans wasn't someone who you can trust or you can count on. _

_One day she needed to stay at the hospital a bit longer, due to some paper work. She couldn't know that that day would have changed her life. _

_Hans entered in her office and locked the door. She knew something wasn't right. She looked at him and saw that his eyes were darker than usual._

_"Dr. Southerisland what-" He made her stop talking walking to her and pressed one hand to her mouth and the other was on her breast._

_"Now, you stay quiet. I've wanted to fuck you since the first day I saw you. I know you want me, I can see it. You play the role of the girl who pretend to not be interested in me by avoiding me or talking to me in a professional way, but I know that deep inside of you, you just want me, my body." She didn't know what he was talking about, she tried to stop him but he was stronger. He took her wrist to make her stay still, so he could do whatever he wanted to. He kissed her. She tried to keep her mouth shut, but he hit her with his knee her abdomen and she let out a cry. In that moment he put his tongue in her mouth, she tried to bite him, but she doesn't know how but she couldn't. She wanted to stop him, but her hands were blocked, her legs too. She knew where this was going. She hoped that her parents, wherever they were, weren't watching what was happening to their daughter._

_Hans took his belt and tied her hands together, so she couldn't do something she shouldn't, like punching him and run away. He made her sit on her desk. He undressed her, and looked to her breast. _

_"__What a nice breast we have here." He took of her bra, and started to squeeze her boobs. He wasn't nice, the feel of his touch wasn't pleasant at all. Elsa wasn't that type of girl who cry, but tears were starting to fell from her icy blue eyes. She wanted him to stop, but even if she was yelling to him, he didn't care. He continued with what he was doing._

_He ripped her panties off, watched at her crotch he smiled and started to touch her clitoris. She wasn't wet, she wasn't aroused, but in Hans' eyes she was ready. He took off his pants, Elsa didn't want to look to him so she kept her eyes closed, with tears running over her face._

_"__Look at me, bitch. See how hard you make me? I know you want me inside of you and I know you're ready, look at yourself, you're so wet." But she wasn't, she couldn't be. She knew she was going to feel a lot of pain. He took his penis in his hand and pushed it in Elsa's entrance. His penis was met by a lot of resistance, but Hans didn't care, he pushed harder until his member couldn't go any further. She shouted from pain, more tears were running. She couldn't believe of what was happening. She couldn't believe she had so much tears in her, but she knew that that was all she could do then. He started moving in and out from her, his member was becoming harder._

_"__You're perfect for my cock. I knew it." He was like in a state of mind where he couldn't see the reality. She wasn't enjoying any of it, she was crying but not from pleasure but from pain. He thought that those cries where from her reaching her orgasm, but it wasn't like that. But it didn't matter, because he was in his "dreamland", he climaxed in her._

_#_

Elsa fights to keep back tears during her speech about the first rape. Marshall sees the pain in Elsa's eyes, he wants to stop, but he can't and Elsa knows it. The court and the judge listen carefully to every word Elsa's saying. They know how the trial will end, but they need to listen to everything. They can understand the difficult situation the woman is dealing with.

Marshall clears his throat. "Okay, thanks. Could you tell us what other things he did to you? And to the other women?" she nods and starts to answer to his friend questions.

_#_

_After that day Elsa was afraid to see Hans, she wanted to talk to someone but she didn't have the force to do it. Every time she was alone, she hoped Hans wouldn't show up. But she wasn't that lucky. He kept visiting Elsa when she was alone in her office or somewhere else. He forced her to do blowjobs when he didn't want to penetrate her vagina. _

_It was a night when she was alone in her office thanking God Hans wasn't there. It wasn't the first time in those months, and it was suspicious to her. She was happy that once in a while she was safe, but she had a feeling that something really bad was happening. She exited from her office, the hospital was quiet, it was pretty late. Once she reached a closed door she heard some noises. She was about to open the door when she recognized a voice. Hans' voice. The other voice was female, and was familiar. In a bad way. Elsa was able to hear the pain of the woman. She tried to open the door, she wanted to save that woman. The door wasn't locked, so she managed to open it and she entered. The woman, was a nurse, she didn't know her name, she didn't care back then, she wanted only her to run away from him. So she took a broom and hit Hans' head, the woman managed to escaped from the man, and ran away. Elsa knew she needed to run as well, but she was felt arms holding her. She tried to release herself from the unwanted hold. She succeeded in doing that, but soon enough she felt a pain in her abdomen. She looked down and saw Hans' scalpel in her flesh. She didn't know why he kept his scalpel in his pocket. But he had it, and for her, it wasn't good. The scalpel exited from her abdomen, but it entered again soon._

_"__You did a stupid thing. Really stupid and know you're going to die." He kept stabbing her until she fall on the ground. She was losing her consciousness. He thought she was going to die and smiled. He walked away leaving her alone in a puddle of blood. He was out of his mind he didn't check her breath, he didn't hide her. He just walked away. _

_Before she blacked out she managed to call for help._

_#_

Elsa keeps answering all the questions of Marshall and Hans' lawyer, and once they have finished with them, she's glad she didn't have to tell anything else again. The judge let her sit next to her lawyer and asks for Hans' to go to the bar.

After Hans' deposition the court leave the room, in order to decide Hans' fate. After some minutes they entered again.

"It was easy for us to decide. All the proof are against Mr. Southerisland. We've decided: the indicted Hans Southerisland is guilty." The judge nods and beats his hammer.

It is over. Everything ends with the hammer hitting the wood. Marshall smiles at Elsa, she lets out a long breath, she can't believe: finally she won't see Hans again, and she can try to move on and live her life. Despite not being such a affectionate person, she accepted Marshall hug, she wants to cry but she doesn't. She wants to be strong in front of everyone, even if in their opinion she has all the right to cry. The two lawyers shake their hands.

"It's over. I'm proud of you, Elsa. You did a great job there, I know it wasn't easy, but I'm glad you did it." Marshall says once they're in front of Elsa's house door.

"Thanks Marshall, I really appreciate what you did. I can't thank you enough."

"You don't need to thank me, just.. live your life now, find friends, find someone to love, be happy. You deserve it, but now? Just go, stay in your couch watch a movie, read a book, sleep. Just relax." He hugs her one more time before going away.

Elsa enters in her home. She locked the door behind her, and looks at the kitchen. It's 3pm, she could eat something. She has a big house, she inherited from her parent's death. There's a big kitchen where she loves cooking, when she has time she learns new recipes. Her living is next to the kitchen, they are divided from a log table, where she eat her meals. In her living room there's a 50 inches plasma TV and a lot of DVD. She enjoys watching movies before going to bed, her Saturday nights are just like that: She sits on her couch, choose a movie and watches it. She owns a PlayStation 3, sometimes she plays it. She enjoys music, so next to the window there's a piano. She's been playing it since she was a little girl, thanks to her mother, who loved music as well. The wall is a light blue, Elsa decided to paint her house with that color because makes her feel calm.

She decides to eat a simple salad, with carrots, tomato and cucumbers. After her snack, she walks to the piano and starts playing some notes. She misses those days where her mother was sitting next to her teaching how to play the instrument. At the memory of her mother's smile Elsa sighs and a tear fell on her cheek and a hand touches the wet cheek. The blonde thinks that she can cry now, she's in her home, she's safe. She wants so much to cry, and so she does. Tears falling on her cheeks, she hugs herself trying to feel some comfort, imagining that her arms are the ones of her mother. In this state of mind, Elsa could feel the presence of her parents, she wants them next to her. She feels so alone, she doesn't want to be alone, but she doesn't have any friend, only Marshall. She tries to calm herself, she's been crying for hours by now. She thinks she should stop crying, she needs to put herself together. She closes her eyes and a familiar figure is in front of her. Slowly she opens her eyes and chooses what to do. She takes her car keys and her jacket and she walks out from her home heading toward her car.

It's 6pm, the blonde knocks to the door and starts to walking in the room.

"Oh, good evening doc. Why are you here? Oh!" The redhead younger woman looks at her doctor's hands. She's holding a pizza. Anna smiles at the blonde.

"I thought you'd like eating some pizza, I don't know what you like. I managed to bring it here without being seen." Elsa walks a little bit closer to her patient and handle the pizza to her. Anna opens the box and smiles. It's a four season pizza with ham, mushrooms, artichokes and olives.

"You may not know what I like, but you managed to bring me my favorite pizza. Thanks you."

Elsa can feel her own lips that are about to make a smile, but she doesn't want to smile in front of her. _'No, no I can't smile, I don't want to show any weaknesses.. but why? I've just made something that I'd never have done before only because I was feeling bad for yesterday. Maybe the morning I've just had made me too emotional.'_ Elsa stops her upcoming smile and looks at Anna's smile, she's focused on her pizza and now she's licking her lips. Unconsciously Elsa licks her own lips too. _'Look at her, she has something different from everyone else.'_

Anna manages to see Elsa licking her lips.

"Doc, do you want some?" Elsa's mind tells her _no_, but how could she ever say no to this young woman in front of her? The blonde checks that there's no one near the room and nods shyly to the redhead taking a sit on the chair next her bed.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi people! I wasn't sure to write the abuse on Elsa, but a part of me told me to do it, so I did it. I tried to handle at best that delicate issue. I don't know how "Pizza quattro stagioni" is called around the world and how it is in other countries, but here in Italy we have those ingredients, it's my brother's favourite pizza, so I don't know, I wanted to make it the favourite one of Anna as well.

Let me know what you think about this chapter! Thanks for you support and have a nice day everyone!

Christy


	10. Chapter 10

_'__What am I doing here? I keep doing things I usually don't do. Why?'_ The blonde can't help but stare at the younger woman, who's eating the last slice of pizza. Anna seems happy, how can someone be this happy only because of food? Elsa can't understand this woman. Every time she's near the redhead, she feel something strange. She doesn't know yet what it is about, but she's afraid to find it out. She isn't sure if it's appropriate for her, as her doctor, to stay there eating pizza with her. A part of her is telling her to walk away, that what she's doing is wrong, she should be professional and be only a doctor to the woman, and that same part of her reminds Elsa of what her father told her once when she was a little girl.

_"__Elsa, you need to understand that you can't show your emotion. You need to be as neutral as possible, because you can't grow attached to your patients. It's for your best, when you'll lose a patient, which probably will happen, you must to inform the family. I've lost patients, but some doctors can't handle the loss of some patients, because they grew attached to them. This is deleterious for a surgeon. You're going to be the best doctor of the country. I want you to be the best, and you'll be. Remember, a patient isn't a friend, it's just a person who needs health care, and you're doing your job, as a surgeon, to make them feel better and heal. After your work is done, you won't have any reason to keep be near to them." Joseph tells to his 12 years old daughter. _

But the other part keeps telling her that everything is right. Being next to Anna, eating a pizza with her, sitting next to her bed when she's supposed to be at home, there is something right in this.

During their dinner Anna keeps talking, she stops only when she needs to take a bite from her food. Elsa politely is listening to every word that exits from that lovely mouth. More than one time the blonde's eyes are locked to those lips, other times they are focused on the redhead's turquoise eyes. It looks like there's a little fire behind them, they seems so alive in comparison with her icy blue ice, that are like they're empty.

"So, tell me doc. Why weren't you here today?" Anna asks to Elsa, before taking her last bite from the pizza. She looks in her doctors eyes, she's curious but she is worried too. Elsa notices the strange look from her patient. She won't tell her the truth.

"I had some personal stuff to do, and the Chief let me take the day off." She isn't looking at Anna, she doesn't know why, but she knows that she couldn't be able to look at her while she isn't telling her the whole truth. The redhead seems to notice that.

"Mh.. so why are you here now? Why did you bring me some pizza? I don't think it's only because I'd have appreciate something different from hospital food."

"I.. I thought that maybe that could be a way to express my apologies." Anna looks at her confused.

"Apologies? For what?" Elsa try to not meet her patient's eyes. Suddenly she finds interesting the floor.

"About yesterday.. I couldn't help but think that you were upset when I told you I couldn't eat with you." She says those words almost as a whisper. _'Oh, come on, Winters. Why are you acting like this? Put yourself together!'_

Anna is silent, she doesn't speak, she only keeps her look on her doctor's face. She can clearly see the discomfort she's feeling right now. The redhead doesn't understand why the blonde is acting like this, but she's glad that she's changing a bit. Odd as it may seem, she thinks that the Ice Queen is becoming more comfortable talking to her. Anna finds herself smiling a bit and without realize her hands are reaching the blonde's ones. The doctor's hand are soft and cold, she squeezes them a little. Elsa doesn't notice right away the hands on hers. Her eyes slowly move from the floor to them, she feels warm. A pleasant warm which is reaching her skin and bones.

Elsa isn't used to have this kind of physical connection with someone. It's a long time since something like this happened, holding her hands in comfort and understanding. Her hands within others, reminds Elsa of her childhood's days. Her mother used to hold her hands when she was sick, afraid.

_"__Oh my little princess.. Mama is here." Katherine is cupping her 12 years old daughter's cheek. Elsa is sick, she has flu and she come back home sooner from school. Her mother is next to her bed, where the little girl is lying. _

_"__Mama.. I'm sorry.." little Elsa is about to cry, her father doesn't like when she misses school._

_"__Oh honey, this isn't your fault. You don't need to be sorry. Your father will understand, I'll make him understand that you didn't miss school because you wanted. Don't worry." She takes her hand and start drawing little circle with her thumb. "Darling, your father and I love you so much, you know that, right?" _

_"__Yes, I know.. but he'll be angry.." her mother place a soft kiss on her daughter forehead. _

_"__He won't. Do you trust me?" little Elsa make a little smile and nods. "Good girl. Now, I take care of you, you'll be fine soon."_

_After her time being sick little Elsa returns to school and her science tutoring with her father. After his speech about how she'll be the best doctor in the country she goes to her mother. She is taking care of the garden, when her little girl comes to her. The blonde tells her about her father's opinion of the relationship between patient and doctor. _

_"__Honey, do you know what really matters in a patient-doctor relationship?" Elsa shakes her head and her mother smiles. "Trust. The patient needs to know that his doctor will do everything to help him. Your father and I share a different point of view about this. He thinks that a surgeon needs to be distant, I think it's important that there's a good relationship. If the patient is sure that the doctors and the nurses are there for him, he'll be happier and he'll feel better sooner. We, as doctors, do everything we can, but in the end, everything is up to the patient. You're little, but one day you'll understand what I'm trying to explain to you." She takes her daughters hand and take her near the orchids._

_"__Flowers are alive, just like you and animals. If you take a good care of them, they'll grow nicely and well. If you are distant, doesn't take care of them, they'll wither. And we don't want this, don't we?" Elsa looks at a group flowers that are growing, next to them there are some beautiful orchids already grew. She squeezes her mother's hand._

_"__No, we don't want that. We take good care of them, so they can be as beautiful as those are now."_

Unconsciously her thumb draws some circles on Anna's hand while she is remembering that day in the garden with her mother. She doesn't know why her mind recalls that moment, maybe because Anna's red hair, reminds her about some of the roses her mother had in the garden. Or maybe because of their hands are together right now.

_'__Wait, what!?' _suddenly Elsa is aware of what she's doing with her thumb on Anna's hand. She looks at the younger woman face, seeing a little blush that's coming on it. The blonde can feel herself blushing too, and immediately she takes her hand back, leaving Anna's in mid-air. The redhead understands what her doctors doesn't said aloud. She knows that the blonde didn't want to seem rude.

"There's no reason to apologize. I understand, I'm a patient, you're my doctor, and it's unprofessional. Yesterday I shouldn't have asked that, and I'm sorry. But, I'm glad that you are here, not only because you brought me pizza, but you bought my favorite one. Thanks you, doc." She smiles to Elsa, that is glad that her patient doesn't comment what happened a few seconds before.

"I'm glad you liked it." Elsa says trying to put herself together.

"Will you be here tomorrow, right?"

"Yes and you'll be home soon." Elsa notices a bit of sadness in Anna's eyes. _'No.. don't be sad..'_

"When am I going home?" Anna says quietly.

"As soon as your father is satisfied about your improvement. As far as concern me, you're free to go even tomorrow. Your heart is fine, the only thing you need to worry about is your broken leg, but it's nothing serious. You'll come back here to take off the plaster cast."

"My father has the final word, then."

"Exactly. Something wrong?" Elsa can't help but sound a bit concerned about the redhead attitude. She's too quiet.

_'__I just don't want to leave you. I'd like to tell you how much I'm enjoying talking to you.. Even if you're still a bit cold, you start to be more comfortable with me. I'm afraid once I leave you, you'll return to be cold as you were at the beginning.' _Anna notices she's mentally talking to herself. She quickly compose herself. "No, there's nothing wrong." She smiles to the blonde.

"All right then. I'm sorry, but I think it's time for me to go, I'm not supposed to be here. And tomorrow I have to come back to work." Elsa says as she stands up.

"Sure. This will be our secret." Anna points out the carton of the pizza.

"Thanks. Take some rest now, good night Miss Summers." Elsa says once she's at the threshold of Anna's room.

"Good night, Dr. Winters." She smiles to the blonde and once she's out she whispers to herself "Thanks.."

It's 2am when Anna wakes up. She isn't sleepy, which is strange. She has a lot in her mind. She keeps recalling the evening with her doctor. She looks at her hands.

_'__She held my hands.. her thumb was playing on my skin. Her hands are so cold, maybe she has a low blood pressure?' _She reaches her phone and checks if there are messages. Only one from her cousin Sven.

_"__Ehy feisty-pants! How are you doing? Today I went to Tania's and she asked me to tell you that as soon as you come back we are going to her, she'll bake your favorite cake! You need to tell me everything about this Ice Queen! You stopped telling me what's happening, do I need to talk to Kristoff? You know he would tell me anything, I'm his little brother after all. See you tomorrow, I'm coming to the hospital with Kristoff! Good night, love you."_

Anna closes her phone, and watches at the window, thinking about everything and nothing. She thinks about her little cousin Sven, who's turning 18years old at the end of this week. She realizes she don't have yet the present for him, that's not good, she needs to go shopping.

She closes her eyes for a moment and she sees her doctor's face. She opens them, she doesn't know why she doesn't want to come home, she wants to be near to the blonde. She knows she can't, after all, she's just her doctor. _'A sexy doctor.'_ Anna's eyes are now wide open at her thought. _'What the hell am I thinking!? I can't think about her in that way.. or can I?'_ Anna starts recalling her doctors figure, her long blonde hair in that well done braid, that run down her left shoulder. Her pale yet beautiful skin. Her icy blue eyes. Those eyes are something magical. She bets that for a brief moment during their lunch those eyes, usually blank, were alive. There was something, some emotion she doesn't know right now. She hopes one day she'll be able to see that emotion again.

_"__Anna, you know that you're talking about the Ice Queen?" Kristoff tells her that morning._

_"__Yes! I'm aware of that, thanks. I only asked her if she wanted to eat with me.. nothing else." Anna is telling to her cousin what happened the last evening._

_"__She's too professional to do something like that, don't let your hope raise. I know what you want to do." He sends her a warning look. "She's not like the others. She's different, she's-"_

_"__She's a person. Just like you and me. I bet she's alone, she doesn't have any friends. And you know why? Because everyone, including you, think that she's only a bitch with a frozen heart. But I don't think so. Probably she has a particular past. Why are you acting just like the others!?" _

_"__Anna.. My opinion about her isn't what you think. You know that. But, let's be honest. Sometimes she's a bitch."_

_"__Not with me. I've never seen her acting like everyone say. Only because she does her job very well?"_

_"__No, because she doesn't let anyone near her." Kristoff doesn't think about Elsa like everyone, he thinks she's a great doctor and an excellent teacher. Anna knows that, because Kristoff told her. When they're alone the topic of the conversation is always Elsa. _

_"__You'll see." Anna says those words with a lot of determination. She wants to prove Kristoff that Elsa isn't like that, but that she is a nice person who can be near someone and be friendly._

She notice that during their dinner Elsa was friendly and let Anna be near her, even touch her. She can feel her heartbeat speeds as she thinks about the blonde. She starts feeling warm on her cheek, and she starts to realize.

She likes her doctor. She likes the Ice Queen. She likes Elsa Winters.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everyone! I hope you'll like the chapter. Thanks you so much for your support. It's nice to see that you're enjoying the story.

Have a nice day

Christy


	11. Chapter 11

Kristoff comes in his cousin's room, with him there's Sven, his little brother. They found Anna watching at the window, she doesn't notice their arrival. Kristoff decides to scare her a little, he puts his finger on his lips wordless telling Sven to stay quiet, he nods to his bigger brother and keeps her mouth shut. They slowly walk near Anna's bed, Kristoff has his arms ready to tickle the redhead, and Sven is crawling, his plan is to suddenly jump and made his cousin screams a bit.

Kristoff's hands reach Anna's hips and tackle her, she jumped a little on her bed and quickly turns her head to the attacker, at this point Sven stands up with his arms on the air and making strange noises. She lets out a little scream and watches at them in shock.

"What the hell guys!?Lucky me I'm already at the hospital!" although she wants to sound pissed, she can't. She enjoys this moment with her cousins. They all start to laugh.

"You should have seen your face! It was priceless." Sven tries to say to her, but all that comes out of his mouth is only laugh.

After a little bit Sven hugs Anna.

"I missed you Anna! How are you?" Anna gives him a quick kiss on his cheek, on the contrary of his bigger brother, the show of affection doesn't bothers Sven.

"I'm fine, soon I'll be home.." she says trying to cover the little sadness in her voice, but Kristoff notices it and sends her a confused look.

"Anna, what's wrong? Aren't you happy that you're coming home soon?"

"Yeah, I'm happy about that.." _'but I want to stay with Elsa..' _ She tries to smile, she doesn't want to talk about this right now. Kristoff keeps looking at her, he wants to know what's the matter with her, even if I has an idea, but he understands that she seems to not want to talk about it now, once they're alone and Sven is at school, he's ask her about it.

"So, tell me Sven, why are you here today? Shouldn't you be at school?" Sven sits on a side of the bed and looks at the broken leg.

"The English teacher couldn't come at school, we start lesson an hour later and since the hospital isn't too far away from the school I decided to come here with Kristoff and then go to school. I just wanted to see you!" His eyes leave the broken leg to go and meet the redhead's eyes, he smiles. "I'm happy to know that you're doing better."

"Yeah, that's because she has a great doctor." Kristoff says looking at Anna's face. She can't help a little blush on her cheeks even if she tries to suppress it.

"Well, yes, she's great, a lot better than this one here." She jokes and chuckles a bit_._

"Ehy, every day I save lives here, that should mean something." Sven looks at them thinking about how much he's lucky to have a family like this.

"Okay guys, you need to update me on the Ice Queen! Come on, tell me, what's happening in these days?" at this question Anna can feel her cheeks burning even more than before.

"Nothing important, you know? Yesterday she wasn't here. But in general she's great." She lets a little smile coming on her lips as soon as she remembers her doctor's face when she was eating the pizza.

"Oh really? She wasn't there? What a pity.. Why wasn't she at the hospital? Do you know?"

"I guess it was some personal stuff, I don't know, do you know Kristoff?"

"No, I'm sorry I don't know." After he says those words he checks his watch. "Sven I guess it's time for you to go or you lose the bus. Remember to call mom, so she can pick you up."

"Oh come on! Already? I don't want to.." his bigger brother sends him a look, and he stays quiet. He stands up and gives a kiss on Anna's cheek. "All right, see you soon Anna! Bye!" and he walks out leaving the two young adult alone.

Kristoff takes a chair and sits on it, his eyes never leave Anna's ones. His hand on his chin and nods to himself.

"So, what's going on?" the redhead seems a little confused.

"I.. I don't know what you mean.." he sighs.

"Anna, I know there's something going on with you. You know you can tell me everything you want."

Anna looks at her hands which are on her lap and debates with herself about telling or not telling Kristoff. She knows she shouldn't tell him anything, but he's also is cousin, he's like a brother to her, she knows she can trust him. He's always been there for her.

"I don't know.. it's complicated."

"Anna with you is always complicated. Just know, that I'll be always there for you." He sends her a comfort look.

"I guess I like someone.." Anna says so quietly that it makes difficult for Kristoff to hear those words.

"You like someone? Who?"

"I can't tell you.." Anna looks away from him. Kristoff has an idea of who this someone is, but he'd like her to tell him.

"Anna, do I know this person?"

"Yes.."

"You know that I support you no matter what, right?" He puts an hand on her shoulder to comfort her, he knows that probably this is a hard for her.

Anna's never came out directly to her family, Kristoff always thought that she might like women, but he never asked her in which team she played. He doesn't care, he loves her cousin no matter what.

"It's a woman. I like a woman." Anna says a little afraid to watch him in the eyes.

"Anna, look at me, don't be afraid.. I won't judge you, this woman, you like her, and that's fine. As soon as it's not Mandy." He manages to make her cousin chuckles a bit.

"No, I don't like Mandy, don't worry, she's all yours." Anna finally looks at him and see only love from his eyes. She's glad that he still loves her even if she likes someone of her same gender.

"So, I know her.. have I to guess who she is or you'll tell me?" he crosses his arms waiting for her to tell the name.

"I.. I'm not ready to tell you who she is.. I'll tell you, but not right now.. okay?" this isn't the Anna he knows, she's so different, so insecure, but he understands.

"That's okay, don't worry. I'll wait until you're ready." she moves her arms in a way that tell to Kristoff to come closer. He notices the message she's sending to him and hugs his dear cousin.

"Thanks Kris, it's mean a lot to me that you doesn't pull me away only because I like a woman. You're like a brother to me."

"You can always trust on me." He gives her a little kiss on her forehead.

"I know. Now, enough with all about me, let's talk about Mandy!" Kristoff starts blushing.

"Today I'll ask her out for Friday's evening. I'd like to take her to Tania's restaurant."

"That's a good idea, she'll like there, I'm sure of it. But you're taking so long, you should have asked her yet."

"I know.. but I wasn't sure, I was afraid but today is the day." He says standing up and showing his determination. Anna chuckles at him.

After a while Kristoff leaves her cousin's room and goes to check on his patients. Everything is fine in these days, the patients are getting better, sometimes he does some surgeries, but nothing too serious. After he does the rounds, he goes and check if he's in shift on the ER. Since he's off of the ER, he decides to go to Anna's room, it isn't lunch time yet, so he can't go to Mandy and ask her out.

As he's reaching to Anna's room, he sees Elsa, who's about to enter in the room. He calls her out and she turns to him.

"Dr. Bijorman, what can I do for you?"

"Morning, I wanted to ask you how Anna's doing and if I can stay with you today for a while." She looks at him with a confused look.

"Have you already done the rounds?"

"Yes and everything is fine, I checked everyone, the pre and post-operations." She looks at the papers she has on her hands.

"Okay, you can stay with me for a while, but I'd like you to stay quiet, remember that you're not in this case." He nods and smiles to himself. He can watch how those two acts when they're together.

They enter in the room and suddenly Anna's face changes expression. Kristoff remembers how she was when he came in the early morning.

"Morning Doc. So, what are we going to do today?" She smiles at Elsa. Kristoff notices how the redhead's eyes sparkle and she seems so alive. Then he looks at his boss and sees how she changes her posture. She's relaxed but a bit nervous, Kristoff is shocked after noticing something on his boss's face. _'What?! She's about to blush! Seriously?'_

"Good morning Miss Summers, we're going to do a check up and then we'll see if your father is favorable on your dismiss." At that both faces of the women changes. Kristoff is watching everything that those two are doing, how they look at each others. He has the confirmation that Anna like Dr. Winters, and he suspect that the doctors likes the redhead. He's never seen his boss shows some kind of emotion. It's strange for Kristoff to see Elsa walks closer to Anna and starts with taking the blood pressure. Usually she lets nurses or him to do this exams. Another thing he notices that it's odd, is that they talk to each other. Even if Elsa doesn't speak a lot, she talks with her. There's this interesting situation between those two and Kristoff starts thinking that this is the beginning of something really special.

After the check up it's done, the two doctors leaves Anna's room. They're walking to Elsa's office, she doesn't said anything, she looking at the papers on her hands and he simply follow her. After all, he doesn't have nothing to do for now. Elsa opens her office's door and suddenly turns around seeing Kristoff behind her.

"Would you come in?" He looks at her confused but nods. They enters and Elsa goes to her desk, while Kristoff sits on a chair in front of the desk. He notices the little snow globe and lets out a little smile.

"So, how is doing my cousin?" Elsa puts the papers down and looks at him.

"She's fine, beside her broken leg everything is okay with her. I only need her father consent to dismiss her and send her home. Do you two live together?" He shakes his head.

"No, she's just moved in a new apartment near her university." Elsa looks for a brief moment at the snow globe.

"Okay, but for a while it's better if she doesn't live alone, only because she needs to do some injections for the leg." Kristoff is sure that for a very short moment he saw a little bit of worry on her face.

"I guess she'll stay to her parent's home. So there's no need to worry about that." He keeps his eyes on Elsa's face, he's enjoying staying there and find out if she feels the same about Anna or not. It's like he's a some kind of spy.

Elsa doesn't want to lift her eyes and meet Kristoff's ones, she feels exposed but she doesn't know why she's feeling like this.

"Dr. Winters everything okay?" he sounds a little bit concerned.

"Yes, everything is fine." Kristoff isn't sure if what he's going to say after it's a good idea or not, but at the moment he doesn't care.

"I've noticed that you act differently with Anna. I know I don't know you and I'm not in the position to make any assumption, but in these days you two are acting differently." He says carefully. Elsa stays quiet for a moment, which it's strange, he would have bet that at this point she would have said to get out of the office or to shut up because he was nobody to say something like that. Instead there's a quiet moment between the two doctors.

_'__What's happening to me in these days? He said that I act differently, how is it possible? Maybe he saw us yesterday? No, I don't think so.' _ She remembers that yesterday evening he wasn't at the hospital. She's aware that she hasn't yet told a word to him after his statement. She knows that it's strange for her, usually she doesn't let people make assumption about her. _'I changed. I'm changing.'_

She looks at him, she knows that he's debating with himself if he did a right choice in telling her that or not.

"I guess you're right. I'm acting differently and honestly I'm not sure why, but I can assure you that my doctor's skills are intact."

"I wasn't implying that you're skills weren't intact.. I've just.. I'm sorry." And he is. He doesn't want her to think that with those words he was saying that she wasn't the surgeon she was before.

"No, I _am_ sorry. I know you weren't saying that." Kristoff is once again shocked about her boss's new attitude. _'Did she said that she's sorry? Wow she's changing.'_

"I know we aren't friends but colleagues, but.. if there's something wrong, you can tell me." He knows that he's pushing too far saying that, but he couldn't help it.

Elsa is silent again. _'Things are changing in my life.'_ She sighs. "Thanks Dr. Bijorman." He smiles at her, but she doesn't smile back.

"I guess I'll leave you alone." Kristoff says while standing up.

"Just one more thing, please." He stops his movements. "Tells Anna that in a while it's time for her injection." He's perplex. Did he hear correctly? She said "Anna" and not "Miss Summers"? He notices the scared look of Elsa and decides that it's better to not say anything about that.

"All right, see you later Dr. Winters." He exits from the office with a grin on his face.

_'__Shit. Did I say Anna!?'_ Elsa puts her head between her hands and closes her eyes. _'Damn. What's going on with me!?'_

Kristoff enters Anna's room, she's listening to some music on her iPod. He pokes at Anna's shoulder to catch her attention. She turns around her head and sees Kristoff. She takes off her headphones.

"It's Elsa, isn't she?" He says with a grin.

Anna looks at him with shock in her eyes. _'How did he..?'_

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hello people! I hope you'll enjoy the chapter. Thanks you so much for your support.

See you at the next update and have a nice day everyone!

Christy


	12. Chapter 12

Anna keeps her eyes focused on Kristoff's. She doesn't know how could he possibly understand that she likes Elsa. How did he understand? Is she that obvious? She can't help but be shocked and speechless.

"How…what..eh!?" She says to herself in a whisper Kristoff chuckles and sits next to his cousin. He takes her hands and squeezes them.

"Anna, calm down. Just tell me if I'm wrong or right. Do you like her? I won't tell her, don't worry."

Anna looks at his cousin, she can clearly see that he means what he's saying, he won't tell her doctor anything. He's trustworthy.

"Yes. It's her." She says with a soft voice. Her lips show a little smile.

"I knew it!" Kristoff says while he's putting her hands up just like fans do when their favorite team wins a match.

"How did you find out it's her?" Anna looks at him with a curious look. His cousin is really something.

"I understood it this morning. When I was here with Elsa. She acted differently than always and I saw how you were so alive next to her. I looked at your eyes and I understood. You're like an open-book to me, dear cousin." He smirks to her.

She punches his shoulder.

"Oh come on! I wasn't that obvious!"

"Well, maybe she didn't notice it, but I did. I told you, I know you and I don't miss anything."

She doesn't even remember that Kristoff was there that morning, she was focused only on Elsa. How can somebody not notice how gorgeous is she?

Kristoff smiles at the younger woman. He's happy that she likes someone, he just hopes that she won't be rejected. He may not know very well his boss, but he can say that she doesn't let people in and it could be difficult for Anna to gain some room in the Ice Queen's heart. But maybe, thinking about that morning and how Elsa spoke about Anna and how she acted with her, the redhead already has a special place on the blonde doctor's heart.

"You know, I'm happy that you now know who I like. One thing less to say to you." The young woman says. Then her face changes. "Oh.. but soon I'll be sent at home and I won't see her again.."

Kristoff understand what his cousin is trying to say with those words.

"That's not entirely true. You know, you can come back here. You need to check on your leg and you can come to visit me at work and with that excuse you can see her too. So it's not over between you two. Why don't you ask her for her phone number or I don't know?"

"Do you think she would give me her number..?"

Kristoff thinks about it, he suggested it but he isn't really sure that his boss would give it to her.

"You can always try whenever you're ready or want." He says thinking that would be enough for now. She nods and watches at the clock in the room.

"I guess you need to do something now." He looks at her confused, but when he notices the time he knows what she's implying.

"Shit.. I need to go! See you later!" He runs out of the room to go to the cafeteria.

Anna chuckles to herself watching her cousin. She thinks he shouldn't be late today, he has to ask Mandy out. She puts her headphones on and presses play on her iPod.

Kristoff is now at the cafeteria and watches around him to see if Mandy is there somewhere. He finds her at a table, she's eating a salad with some chicken. He takes a deep breath, runs an hand through his hairs and walks to her.

"Hi Mandy." He says a bit nervous. The pediatric nurse turns her head and looks at him and with a knowing smile she says.

"Oh, hello Dr. Bijorman." He can't help to smile at her greeting.

"I-I wanted to know how are you doing..?" He's still nervous, he's afraid that she will reject him.

"I'm fine, thanks. And you? How is your cousin Anna?"

"She's fine, soon she'll come back at home." He swallows hard and decides that it's time. It's time to be a man and ask to the woman he thinks he loves that question. The question. "Mandy, I was thinking.. are you free Friday evening?" Mandy looks at him, she understands what he's trying to ask to her.

"I don't have any plan, why?" she smiles at him. His confidence increase at that answer.

"W-would you like to go out with me? For a dinner?" she stays silent for second just to enjoy the view of the young man in front of her who is dying from nervousness.

"As a date?"

"Y-yes."

"Then..my answer is.." she tries to look like she's going to reject the offer. He doesn't understand what's happening, why doesn't she just tell him yes or no? Is she rejecting him?

"Yes. I'd love to go out for a date with you, Kristoff." She smiles at him.

He can't believe in what it's happening, she said yes. He succeeded in asking her out. He wasn't rejected. He can't help but nods to himself and be as happy as he could be. _'This is the best day of my life.'_

Elsa is in her office reading at the same papers she kept holding during all morning.

Those papers are from the courthouse.

Hans will stay in jail for a long time, she's finally safe. He won't come back. She can close that dark chapter of her life. She can start to live. She has a chance to be happy.

She reaches her bag which is in a locker in her office and takes out from it her wallet. She opens it and takes an old photo. She returns to her chair and watches at the picture and a little tear runs on her cheek.

"Mother, father.. I'm sorry if I don't make you proud of me. I don't know if you're watching at me from wherever you are, if you are, I am sorry for what happened to me. I am sorry I wasn't brave enough to fight for myself back then. But I tried to do the right thing during this past weeks. And now, the other women and I are safe. He won't harm anyone anymore."

The picture shows Katherine and Joseph Winters holding a little Elsa. In this photo she's 6 years old, it's Christmas and they're next the fireplace. This is one of the best memories of Elsa's childhood. Despite her parents were strict, they loved her and this photo is the proof. Little Elsa has in her hands a stuffed animal, it's a cat. She remembers that she kept asking for her parents for a cat, but her mother was allergic to it, so her father decided to buy a stuffed cat trying to make his daughter happy, even if it wasn't a real cat. And she was.

After some moments holding that picture between her hands, Elsa hears a knock on her office's door.

"Come in." after a second the door opens. "Dr. Summers, what can I do for you?"

He smiles at her. "Good morning, Dr. Winters. I wanted to see my daughter's medical record, you told me that she could be send home soon." At that she can feel some pain on her chest. Is she having an heart attack? No. She just doesn't like to remember that Anna will be dismissed soon and she won't see her again. She searches for the papers the man asked for and handles them.

"Here and yes, she's doing fine. As I told you, my only concern is about her broken leg, she needs to take care of it and have her daily injections." He looks at her and then at his daughter's medical record.

"So her heart is fine?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right, then she'll be dismissed." She nods and takes again the papers and puts them on her desk. "And tomorrow you'll be assigned again to your patients. Dr. Bijorman has done a wonderful work, but he still needs to learn a lot."

"Sure." He nods and walks out from the office leaving Elsa alone.

She looks at her clock and notices that it's time for Anna's injection. _'Tomorrow I won't need to be in her room. Tomorrow I'll come back to my patients. Tomorrow I'll be a surgeon again, I won't be a babysitter anymore. Then why I'm not happy about it? Why I'm upset? I shouldn't be. She's just a patient. Isn't she..?'_ She stands up from her chair and reaches the doorknob. She takes a breath and walks to that room.

_"__Oh her eyes, her eyes_

_Make the stars looks they're not shining._

_Her hair, her hair_

_Falls perfectly without her trying_

_She's so beautiful and I tell her every day._

_Yeah."_

Anna smiles thinking about someone's braid on her shoulder. She's always loved that song and it's nice that it comes right now, it that specific moment.

_"__When I see your face_

_There's not a thing I would change_

_'__Cause you're amazing_

_Just the way you are_

_And when you smile_

_The whole word stops and stares for a while_

_'__Cause, girl, you're amazing_

_Just the way you are."_

Elsa is in the threshold watching at the redhead, listening to her wonderful voice. She doesn't believe she ever heard a voice like that, it's a voice of.. an angel, maybe? She doesn't know, but she could spend hours just listening to her.

Anna isn't aware of the blonde frozen at the door. She just keeps singing that song. And hearing the lyrics all she can think about is her doctor.

_"__Her lips, her lips_

_I could kiss them all day if she'd let me_

_Her laugh, her laugh_

_She hates but I think it's so sexy_

_She's so beautiful _

_And I tell her every day."_

Elsa doesn't know why but feels something unpleasant in her stomach, because it's something she never experienced before. With that feeling she can feel her body warm up, another thing that she isn't used to feel.

She decides that it's time to interrupt the redhead, even if she doesn't want to, but she has to. She needs those feelings go away for now. She walks near Anna and notices that she doesn't seem to be aware of the blonde's presence. She touches carefully the redhead's shoulder and she stops immediately singing and turns her head.

Anna's face become red in record time and she takes off her headphones and looks embarrassed.

"Oh.. hi Doc!" She says a little bit too loud making the blonde blinks for a moment and take a step back.

"You.. you sing very well." The doctor manages to say.

"Thanks.." if it's possible Anna blushes even more than before. She can't believe her crush has just complimented her.

After an awkward silence between the two woman, Elsa decides to speak first, she clears her throat.

"So.. I'm here because it's time for your injection and to let you know that tomorrow you'll be no longer a patient of this hospital. You'll be back at home."

"Oh.." that's all she can say at the moment. She lets the blonde to do her job. The doctor takes her arm and starts with the injection, trying to not harm her. She gently rubs the skin before and after the action. She knows that this isn't something she has to do, but deep inside of her, Elsa doesn't want a nurse to touch Anna. She doesn't understand why she's acting so strangely in these days. Everything started when Anna came in the ER. She changed almost everything in Elsa's life, and she doesn't understand why she lets her doing so. Elsa isn't the kind of person who lets people near to her, nothing less lets people change her way to interact.

Anna takes courage and speaks up "I won't be able to see you again.."

At that Elsa stops rubbing Anna's skin and looks in the redhead's eyes. She sees sadness in them and she's aware there's a bit of it in her eyes too. She knows she is showing her emotions right now, but she can't help to do that and she sadly sighs.

"Yes. Honestly I hope I won't see you again.." the doctors says but as soon as she realizes what she's just said she notices Anna's eyes that are about to let a little tear coming down. She quickly speaks again trying to explain herself better.

"I mean.. I don't want to see you again the ER.. especially if it's something relating to your heart. I just want you to be well, not that I don't enjoy your company.." Elsa blinks at her words, just like Anna does. _'What!? I've just said this!? I've just admitted I enjoy her company.. oh God. I shouldn't expose myself like this..'_

"I enjoy your company too. You're not like everyone thinks. You're a good person and it's nice being next to you, you should let people in, you know?" She says softly at her doctor. Elsa stays quiet for a moment, she doesn't know how to respond to that.

"I'm not comfortable in letting people in.. and honestly I don't care what people think about me." _'I care about what __you__ think about me..wait what!?'_ "And it's not like we won't see each other again, you'll need to come back her to check on your leg and take off the plaster cast."

"Right, I guess I can't stay with that forever." She points at the white solid bandage on her broken leg. Suddenly she realizes that this will be their last day together in that room, maybe she could manage to do something special. She comes up with a brilliant idea.

"I think I have an issue. A big one."

Elsa looks confused at her patients words. "Which is?"

"Well, you know my favorite pizza." Elsa is more confused than before, she doesn't understand why she's talking about that, then Anna talks again. "I need to find out which one is your favorite, maybe we could some pizza this evening after your shifts ends."

Elsa sees the hope in the younger woman's eyes, she doesn't think about it twice.

"It would be nice, try to guess it. When I come back here, before my shift ends, you'll tell me which is my favorite pizza, and if you're right, we'll have another pizza night." Elsa can't believe she's just said that. She fights a smile and starts walking away when Anna stops her with her voice.

"I think we'll have another secret dinner together." Anna smiles to her beautiful doctor and knows that she's falling deep for her.

Elsa nods to her incredible patient and exits from the office.

It's the first time in her life that she's acting like this, and she wants, she needs to understand why. She walks to her office and takes her phone.

"Ehy, I need to ask you something."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everybody! I hope you'll like the new chapter. I know that maybe "Just the way you are" is a bit of a cliché, but when I was reaching that point that song played on my iPod and I thought "well.. maybe it could be a nice idea putting it there."

Thanks for your continue support and for opinions, it's nice to see you're liking this story. I know that maybe it's not the best story, but I'm glad that it's enough to be liked at least a bit.

Have a wonderful day everyone,

Christy


	13. Chapter 13

Elsa is locked in her office, she doesn't want to be bother by anyone while she's making an important phone call. She needs to understand a few things, so she's calling someone she thinks could help.

_"__Elsa, it's nice to hear from you again. What do you need?"_ at the other line there's Marshall. That morning he sent her the paper from the courthouse and he thinks she has some questions about it. _"Is something about those papers?"_

She shakes her head then she realizes that she's on the phone and he can't see her movements.

"No, it's not that. Actually I think is something more important.."

_"__What do you mean?"_

"I don't understand why in these days I'm acting differently.." the blonde doctor mumbles.

_"__Elsa, do you realize that if I don't know what's going on I can't really help you?"_ He chuckles at her friend's words.

"You're right.. sorry, you see?! Usually I should explain everything from the start.."

_"__Well, yes, that's odd. But, just try to explain me, so that I can help you, all right?"_

"Okay, so. There's this woman, she's my patient. Well, she shouldn't be, but she's the daughter of the Chief and he decided that I should have been her doctor. She came in the ER for a broken leg, you know I'm a cardiac surgeon, so they shouldn't have called me on my pager, right? But my intern did, because she had a history of cardiac's problem. Her father wanted me as her doctor, he took away all my patients and gave them to my intern. I had only this one patient, this woman. She's younger than me, she has beautiful red hair and turquoise eyes, she talks a lot, but I don't mind, well maybe at the beginning, but then I get used to her rambling, she can sing very well, she has a nice voice. She's my intern's cousin," Marshall tries to hold back his chuckle, he can't believe she is the one rambling now about how the younger woman is. Elsa notices what she's saying and clears her throat.

"So, at first I let some nurse doing some exams, but then I began to do them to myself. I check on her every day. I don't know why but I started to do things differently, for example now I'm the one who checks her blood pressure, usually nurses do that. Yesterday evening I did something I thought I would never have done. The other day she told me she was sick of eating hospital's food and asked for some 'real' food, and she asked me to eat with her, but I told her that I couldn't do that, because it was inappropriate for a doctor do something like that with a patient. But yesterday I don't know.. I came here at the hospital and brought with me a pizza. We ate it together." She sighs remembering that evening. She can't help but thinking about the redhead's smile, it's probably the most beautiful thing she's ever seen in her life. "It's not something I would usually do!" She exclaims exasperated.

Marshall takes a moment to think about her friend's situation. He knows how she is: she's shy, she doesn't let people in, she follows rules.

_"__I think it's pretty clear, dear."_ Elsa looks at the wall with a confused look, she doesn't know how could it be clear! It's a mess in the blonde's eyes, she doesn't understand anything.

"How can you say that!?"

_"__Well, you start to like her. She seems to be the opposite of you, you know? It's like the yin and the yang. It's quiet funny." _ He chuckles as he tries to imagine those two women in a room talking with each others. Elsa would be like a little panda, calm and shy, and the other woman would be like a little puppy, running around her and trying to communicate with Elsa.

"I can't like her, I barely know her."

_"__That doesn't mean anything. You can like a person even if you don't know her, you said you stay only with her in these days, right? Well, you're getting used to her company and you seem to be interested in this girl, maybe only just in a friendship way." _

The doctor thinks about it for a moment. Maybe he's right, she doesn't mind being in Anna's company, actually if she has to choose, she'd like to stay with her longer.

"Should I try to be friend with her..?" she tentatively asks to Marshall.

_"__It could be a nice idea. See how this thing between you two goes. You could even enjoy how your relationship would develop."_ He'd like to see this person. _'This girl must be something. Making Elsa this insecure, I need to meet her.'_

"Okay then.. thanks Marshall." she hangs up and puts her phone in her pocket.

Does she likes Anna? She exits from her office while she keeps asking the same question. To be a friend with the redhead, well it will be a new experience to her. She really doesn't tried to have some friends, except for Marshall. She doesn't know how to start, should she just act as she's acting now? Should she do something different?

_'__Damn.. I should have asked to Marshall how to be friend with her.. I can't call him again..'_

"Dr. Winters!" the called doctor turns her head towards the familiar voice.

"Dr. Bijorman, how can I help you?" he's running to her.

"It's.." he's trying to catch his breath. "I tried to call her." She watched at her pager.

"Shit.. it's dead." She mumbles to herself then she directs her attention to Kristoff "Tell me, what's going on?"

"There's an emergency in Anna's room."

Immediately after those words Elsa is running to Anna's room. She doesn't know what's happening, she's cursing herself for not checking on her pager. She can't believe that now there's an unknown emergency in the redhead's room. She had just one job. Keep an eye on her. She should have left the hospital tomorrow, so why on heart she's having a freaking emergency call?

Luckily her office isn't too far away from that room, while they're running she can see nurses coming in Anna's room. The only thing she can hear is 'code blue'. She doesn't want to believe it, she doesn't know why she's this worried about the redhead.

Once they're inside the room, they watch as a nurse is doing the cardiac reanimation. Kristoff is frozen in the threshold, he wants to close his eyes, to run away, but he stays there, just like a doctor would do. He isn't his cousin's doctor, but he wants to do something but he can't, he just can't move.

Elsa is for only a second in the same position of her intern. She doesn't even hear well what the nurse is saying to her. It's just like she's in a bubble and all she can hear is the sound of the monitor that shows the heartbeat of the redhead: it's flat and there's that too awfully familiar constant "beep". She heard it too many times, but this time it's different. Right there, in that bed there's someone special to her. _'No. I can't lose her. Not now.'_

After that second of being frozen she reaches the nurse and makes her move, she starts with the compressions and tries to make Anna's heart beating again. While she's pushing her hands on the redhead's chest, a nurse gives her the oxygen through the mask.

Elsa stops for a second to watch at the monitor, still flat. She takes the defibrillator and does what she's best at. Make start again the heart.

She isn't a really religious person and it's not because she's a doctor, a woman of science. But because she's always thought that if there's a God, ten why bad things keep happening? Why her parents died in a damn airplane crash? Why she was raped from Hans? Why Anna's heart doesn't beat? Why? She doesn't have an answer to those questions, and she doesn't even know why but she's praying for God to give her Anna back. She's praying for her heart to start beating again. She's praying to be able to hear that angelic voice again.

She shocks one more time. She doesn't want to give up on her. She knows that there's a chance that she could not-

_Beep Beep_

"It's beating…" Elsa mumbles while she's watching at the monitor: it isn't flat anymore. Her eyes go down to the redhead's chest and the doctor lets out a sigh in relief when she sees that Anna's chest restarts to raise and fall alone. She turns her head toward Kristoff to see tears in his face.

"Kristoff, she's fine.." she mumbles. This isn't like her, normally she wouldn't mumble, she wouldn't look so fragile and relieved. But well, that girl in the bed is special.

Elsa walks to Kristoff and puts her hands on his shoulders, she's trying to comfort him. At that right moment Anna's father is running.

"What happened!? Kristoff how's Anna!? Dr. Winters!" He looks at them with worried and scared eyes. "Is she d..is she.." he starts to think at the worse because of the tears in is nephew eyes, but quickly Elsa take control on the situation.

"She's fine, her heart restarted to beat again. She's fine now."

He gives a loud sigh in relief but soon enough his face changes. "You told me she was fine."

"I.. from the exam we did her heart was doing fine, I don't know what happened.." She confesses, she truly doesn't know how it was possible. She's terribly sorry for what happened, she thinks that this is her fault, maybe the pizza of the last evening? No, that's impossible.

Kai Summers looks at his cardiac surgeon, he can see the worry in her eyes and he's surprised that she's showing some kind of emotion, he looks at Kristoff and see how she keeps an hand on his shoulder. He pretends to not notice it and goes to her daughter.

"Elsa.." Kristoff mumbles watching shocked at her hand on him. She follow his gaze and takes away her limb.

"Sorry.."

"No problem.. thanks for what you've done." He watches inside at the room and see how his uncle caress his cousin's hair. He can't understand what happened, she was fine that morning. "She was going to come back at home.. what happened?" he looks to Elsa now. She hesitates for a moment.

"I wish I knew." Kristoff reaches his uncle next to Anna.

She remains still at the threshold while nurses and her family goes away. She enters slowly, watching at the sleeping woman. Instinctively she adjusts the blanket on the redhead's body, she doesn't know why but she wants her to be warmer.

She goes for a moment to her office and returns immediately to Anna. She sits in a chair next to Anna's bed. She takes her medical record and read it with great care: she needs to find out what happened and if she missed something. She turns on her laptop and checks on her recently exams.

She's her only patient and she hasn't nothing to do. Elsa could stay at her office working on Anna's case, but something deep inside her say to stay there, next to her. Just in case. She doesn't want her to have another attack like that.

It's been hours since she's there, Anna is still sleeping, sometimes the blonde check her heartbeat with her stethoscope. After a while her eyes are starting to feel heavy and she slowly fall asleep.

_"__Mom, what means 'love'?" a little 7years old Elsa is sitting on the living room's couch, next to her there's her mother, who's drinking some hot chocolate. It's Elsa's birthday, her father will come back soon from work. Her mother is off from work, because she wants to stay all day with her daughter. She smiles at the little girl in front of her who is holding a dictionary._

_"__The dictionary says something.. but I don't understand.."_

_"__It's complicated to answer at that question dear." She takes the dictionary from her daughter's hands and closes it._

_"__You know sweetie, love is something that you can find here." She pokes at the little girl's heart. "It's a complicated feelings, there are different kind of it, there's the love that you share with your family, for example the love your father and I have for you and you have for us. There's the love for things you like, for example chocolate." She chuckles at her daughter's surprised face. _

_"__Then there's the love you share with the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and to have a family with. For example the love I share with your father. It's not easy to understand it, it comes in different shapes and in mysterious ways." Little Elsa shows a confused look her mother handles her some hot chocolate._

_"__When you grow up, you'll find someone special that makes you feel complete, and you'll understand. For now, enjoy your chocolate, birthday girl." She kisses her daughter's forehead and looks at the fireplace._

Elsa slowly opens her eyes and see that it's dark outside. She doesn't know for how long she was asleep, when she looks at the redhead she see her eyes focused on her.

"Ehy.. you're awake, Doc." Anna says with a little blush on her cheek, she's embarrassed because when she woke up she noticed that her doctor was next to her sleeping and it was a wonderful sight to her.

"Anna.. how are you feeling?" Elsa tries to compose herself.

"A bit tired, what happened?" she's just confused as the blonde.

"You had an heart failure.. I managed to make your heart start beating again, you scared us."

" 'us'?"

"Kristoff, your father and me." She mumbles, she gives up: she can't manage to conceal her feeling.

For a moment Anna is quiet with her eyes still on her doctor's. _'She called me Anna, and said Kristoff's name. She didn't call us in a formal way. She's too cute.'_ Then she realizes that it's evening and Elsa's shift should be over for long now. The clock of her room says 9:10pm.

"I guess your shift is over.. and I didn't find out which is your favorite pizza."

Elsa looks at her confused and surprised. This woman is really something, instead of being concern about her well being, her thoughts are focused on the pizza. She tries to suppress a chuckle, but fails. It's the first time she chuckles at work and in front of someone. She's starting to think that with Anna she's having a lot of 'first times'.

Anna is listening to the little chuckles coming from the blonde and thinks that those are the most adorable sounds she's ever heard in her life.

"My favorite pizza is the vegetarian one. I love vegetables."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Yep, I give you another chapter in record time! :D

I don't know, today I just wanted to write.. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and the next one will come probably next saturday or friday or.. I don't know, next week u.u

So, have a nice day everyone!

Christy


	14. Chapter 14

"I guess we can't eat some pizza now.."

Elsa shakes sadly her head, she doesn't want to make unhappy this younger woman in front of her. She'd like to do something but for now all she can do is to stay there with her and find out what happened.

"I am sorry Anna, but you can't eat pizza tonight.. I don't know what happened, your heart was doing fine, all the exams were good, so I have no clue and for now, I need to keep a close eye on you, I don't want it happens again."

Anna nods slowly to her doctor. She understands the current situation: they don't know why her heart decided to cause some troubles. She wasn't doing anything when it all happened, she was taking a nap and when she woke up she was in her room and next to her there was Elsa sleeping.

Suddenly the redhead's stomach rumbles making the blonde and her blushing together. Anna chuckles a little and runs her hand through her messy hairs while mumbling a 'sorry' to her doctor. Elsa's hand rises to her mouth in order to hide a little smile of her and she starts to stand up.

"I think I could go and grab something for you to eat."

"Oh no.. hospital food again.." Anna says without trying to suppress the smile that is on her face. She can't help to think that it's nice to see this new side of the blonde, it's like she's more herself now. Maybe being next to her every day helped her to be more comfortable around someone else, and honestly speaking Anna is happy that that 'someone' is her.

While Elsa is searching something to eat Anna stays still in her bed with her eyes looked at the now empty chair beside her. A part of her is happy that she can stay longer there with the amazing blonde, but the other part is pretty concerned. Why did she have a heart failure? Why now? She doesn't want to have more problems.

_'__Damn.. I thought I was doing great.'_ She sighs to herself and waits for Elsa to come back.

The blonde doctor is walking back to Anna's room with some food, but she's reluctant to come in.

She's afraid that when her feet go through the threshold she has to assist to another episode like the one of that afternoon. It's like the first time she's really concerned about one of her patient, she used to follow her father's view about doctor-patient relationship, but now with Anna everything is different. The talk with Marshall helped her understanding that she enjoys being with the redhead and that probably she wants them to be friends. All at once her mind brings back some words of her father _'you can't be friend with your patient, it will be deleterious.' _He may be right, but she has this feeling deep inside of her that her being friend to Anna isn't deleterious at all. On the contrary, she's starting to think that this connection that is growing between them is good.

Elsa takes a deep breath and walks in the room greeted by a lost in thought Anna. The doctor approaches her and sits again in the same chair which is subject to Anna's attentive gaze.

"Here, something for your rumbling stomach." She handles her the fruit pudding and a bottle of water, but Anna seems to be still in her dreamland. "Ehy, Earth to Anna." At that the redhead blinks her eyes and finally notice the blonde's hands under her face with the pudding.

"Oh thanks! Sorry I was lost in thought." She mumbles.

"Don't worry, just eat something now." Elsa looks at her as she puts the spoon in her mouth and make something like a grimace.

"I guess I couldn't eat chocolate pudding.. right?" Elsa shakes internally her head in disbelief.

"Nope, I prefer you to eat something more healthy for now, maybe tomorrow if you and your heart play nice." Anna seems to think about her doctor's sentence and then she extends her left her to Elsa who seems a bit confused.

"Let's make a deal, my heart and I will be nice and you'll give us a nice chocolate pudding." Elsa is hesitant for a little but then takes Anna's hand and shakes it.

"Deal."

Now it's 10:30pm, Anna finished her late and poor dinner and they talked for a while. Anna starts to yawn and Elsa takes that as a clue for her to leave the younger woman sleep. She starts to stand up when Anna stops her.

"Wait.. are you going?"

"Yeah, you need some rest and I think it's time for me to go to sleep as well. After all my shift ended something like three hours ago and I think my cat is missing me."

"Oh, do you have a cat? What's its name? Do you have a picture?" now Anna doesn't seem tired at all. Elsa chuckles a little and brings out from her coat's pocket her mobile phone. She searches for a photo of her cat and as soon as she finds it she handles it to her.

"Here, there she is. Her name is Etta, she was given to me by a friend of my family, Marshall, her cat bred four kittens and he asked me if I wanted one. Now she's one and an half year old." Anna watches the picture on the screen of Elsa's phone. Etta is a nice white cat with some black blot, she seems healthy and loved. In the photo the cat is in Elsa's couch playing with a red cotton ball.

"Aw, she's so cute!" without thinking Elsa comes closer to Anna's face so that she could watch the photo too. They are a few inches apart, none of them is bothered by the other proximity.

"Yes, she is. You should see her whenever I read my books. It doesn't matter if I'm on my couch, on my bed or the chair, she jumps on my belly or my legs and starts playing with the back of the book. Sometimes when I'm on the couch, she stays behind me on my shoulder and starts to play with the pages of the books.. You can't even imagine how many books she ruined! But I can't stop loving her."

Anna smiles at the story the blonde is telling, she can't help but think that her doctor is a softy and isn't a cold hearted woman. If she has to be honest with herself, she doesn't want others to see this side of the blonde.

Slowly she turns around but then she notices how close they are and she stops her movements. At the same time Elsa face her and they look at each other for what it looks like an eternity. Elsa is holding her breath while her eyes start to gaze every inch of Anna's face, her freckles, her turquoise eyes that look so alive regardless the tiredness, her little cute nose, her lips which are a bit parted. She wonders what would it feels like to touch those lips and that skin. _'What the hell I'm thinking!?'_

Meanwhile Anna is doing the same, she looks her doctor's face. Her eyes are of an icy blue and she likes them, they are unique and beautiful. After she notices the blonde's gaze on her own lips she instinctively her own eyes go down to Elsa's lips while she licks her lips thinking about how it would be to feel the blonde's lips on her own.

Elsa blinks her eyes when she realizes what kind of thoughts she just had and that Anna licked quickly her lips. She gets away too much quickly that she almost falls. The redhead looks worried at her.

"Oh God, are you okay?" Elsa composes herself and stand straight up.

"Yes, everything okay. I.. I should go." Anna looks a bit sad about that but she knows that it's the best for the two of them, after all they still need to rest and it's getting late.

"Yeah, you're right.." Elsa takes her laptop and starts walking out the room when she stops and faces one more time her patient.

"One last thing, I promise you that we'll have another pizza night. I'd like you to taste my favorite pizza. Good night Anna."

"Good night Elsa, sweet dreams." Anna quickly realizes how she's just called her doctor and is about to say sorry and correct herself but Elsa speaks first.

"See you tomorrow, sleep well." The blonde doesn't seem to be bothered by the way the redhead called her.

Anna smiles at herself thinking about how their relationship is developing. Elsa wouldn't let her to call the doctor by her first name, but now it happened and she wasn't upset or offended. On the contrary it seemed that she was pleased by that. Whatever her doctor thinks about the use of her name, Anna thinks that she won't mind if she'll call her again 'Elsa', well, she knows that at the presence of someone else she can't call her like that, but when they're alone she could. Tomorrow she'll try again and see what will happen.

She closes her eyes and go to sleep.

Elsa comes out from her car and locks it before opens her front door's house. As soon as she enters in her home, she smiles to herself as she hears Etta calling her from the living room. She walks to her beloved cat and pats her little head. She checks if Etta ate and then she fills her water bowl. After that she debates to herself if eating something or not, but she's too tired for a late dinner and decides that tomorrow morning she'll have a bigger breakfast than usual.

Elsa walks in her bedroom and changes herself in her pajamas and goes to bed. She's too tired to think about the day she had, the only thing she wants now is to rest and have a good night of sleep. Not long enough Etta comes in and jumps on the bed, she reaches her owner and lays flat next to her. The blonde looks down at her cat with an eyes open and smiles.

"Night, dear Etta."

The next morning Elsa wake up feeling a light pressure on her belly. She groans Etta's name and right after that she stands up and walks to the kitchen to have the biggest breakfast in her entire life.

After eating and feeding her cat she goes to work determined to find out what happened the previous day. Maybe it's only fault of Anna's cardiac condition.

Once she arrives at the hospital she's greeted by Dr. Summers telling her that he hopes she slept well and that he wants her to find out what caused his daughter's heart attack. She doesn't need him to tell her what to do, but she tries to not reply to him in a unprofessional way. Before going to Anna, she finds Kristoff in her office.

"Dr. Winters, good morning."

"Morning, what brings you here?" she asks him confused.

"I think I know what happened yesterday.." Elsa doesn't know if being worried, confused, alarmed or happy to hear about that sentence. She decides to sit down.

"Then tell me." He nods and take a deep breath.

"Yesterday I didn't go back home right after the end of my shift, I decided to stay in the hospital for a while, I noticed that you stayed too, you fell asleep in Anna's room, but I didn't want to wake you up. So I walked around for a while and I heard some nurses talking.." now Elsa doesn't know if he has information about what happened to Anna, that means the heart failure, or what happened between the two of them. She's a bit worried that he could know that Anna and her don't have a 'normal' doctor-patient relationship.

"There was a nurse who was worried that you would have been angry at him because he made a mistake with some papers."

_'__Shit. I don't like how this is going.'_ She stays quiet and waits for him to tell all the story.

"He misread two papers of two different patient, one it was Anna's and the other one was someone else. He didn't give Anna her usual medicine, he gave her another drug but he was too scared to talk about it, knowing your reputation.."

Elsa stands up, he is a bit worried about himself now.

"You should have called me as soon as you found out about it."

"I'm sorry.."

"Don't be, it's okay. You told me now so it's okay, but give me his name now. I need to talk with him and with Dr. Summers." He nods and tell her the name of the nurse.

"You know, I was worried that it was my fault she had that episode.." He looks at her confused.

"How could you think something like that? You didn't do anything wrong." She sighs to herself thinking about why she said that out loud, she knows she can't say anything about the pizza night

"When one of your patient who you thought was doing great suddenly has a heart failure, then you start to think that maybe you miss something."

He nods at his boss understanding what she's talking about. He hasn't experienced a situation like that but he can imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes in that specific moment.

"Thanks Kristoff and please, do me a favor, go check on Anna.. check that that nurse isn't around her. I want her to be safe, okay?"

"Sure, don't worry." She nods to him and they exit together from her office, he goes to his cousin and she walks to her chief.

Once she is in front of Dr. Summers' office she knocks and waits for him to tell her to walk in. She's angry, she wants to go to that nurse and make him pay, but she can't do something like that. She needs to do the right thing, she doesn't want any more drama in her life. After some seconds Kai tells her to come in and she does.

"Dr. Winters, how can I help you?"

"I know what happened to your daughter." He nods to her and shows her to sit down in front of his desk. He takes a deep breath and asks her to tell him everything she knows. She says exactly what Kristoff said previously. Elsa is fully aware that both her and Kai are angry with this nurse.

"Thanks for the information, I'll take care of the situation, from now on, you go check on my daughter and tell Dr. Bijorman that I need to talk with him later after his rounds." She nods and walks out the office.

Elsa's reaching Kristoff and Anna, they're talking about what happened the previous day.

"What the hell!? That bastard!" she yells, it's not hard to hear the angry in her voice.

"What's happening?!" Elsa runs in the room, she couldn't hear what they were talking so she's worried.

"El- Doc! Morning, sorry I've just found out what happened yesterday.."

"Sorry, Dr. Winters, I asked her to not make a scene."

Elsa is more relaxed now. "That's okay, the chief wants to talk with you later."

"All right, then I'll leave you two alone." He smiles at the women and walks out after giving a little punch on Anna's shoulder and whispering something in her ear making her face to blush a little.

Once he's out and far away from the room, Elsa comes closer to Anna and checks her IV, the redhead lets her to do for a while her job but soon enough she takes the blonde's hand.

"It's not your fault, you know? And don't worry, I didn't see that nurse since yesterday afternoon." She says quietly to her doctor, it's like the role are switched: it's Elsa the one who seems to be injured.  
"Ehy, now we know that it wasn't my heart's fault, so I think we can eat that pizza soon, right Elsa?"

The blonde shakes her head in disbelief and squeeze Anna's head.

"Not so fast, Anna. I still need to check you and make sure you're fine."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Ehy everyone, how are you? I hope you'll like this new chapter. The name of Elsa's cat 'Etta', for who watched Fringe is familiar, for who didn't watched the show I'll explain: Etta (for long Henrietta) was the name of a character of the show, it was played by Georgina Haig, for who watch Once Upon A Time should know who she is. Georgina Haig is palying our beloved Elsa in OUAT, so I decided to call the cat like that.

Thanks for the support and I wish you all to have a nice Sunday and have a nice day :)

Be well,

Christy


	15. Chapter 15

The nurse who confused the medicines gets fired, Kai doesn't like the fact that one of his staff isn't able to read correctly the prescriptions causing issues to the patients. Worthless say that his inability to work properly caused the Chief's daughter to have some complications. After Kai found out who the other patient was, an old man, he checked his vitals. Now both the old man and Anna are doing better.

It's the third day after the incident and since Anna's vitals are great, she can be dismissed. In a few hours her mother Gerda will come in the hospital to pick her up. The redhead is waiting patiently in her room staying still in her bed. She wants to be back at home, she misses food which isn't from the hospital, if she has to stay with her parents she hopes that at least her mother cooks sometimes pizza or pasta or dishes like those.

"Morning Anna, how are you feeling? Ready to go home?" Anna turns to face the source of that lovely voice, once she faces it she smiles.

"Morning to you Elsa, I'm fine and yes, I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to eat something different." The blonde walks closer to her and checks for the last time her medical records. She notices the look that the younger woman sends to her. After that event Elsa doesn't let any nurses near her patient, she doesn't want anything bad to happen to Anna, after all she doesn't have any patients others than the redhead and she doesn't mind to be with her all the time, of course whenever she can.

"I'll help you to get ready for your mother." As said she helps Anna to sit in her bed who is still wearing the 'hospital-pajama' as the redhead likes to call it. Elsa reaches the wardrobe and takes out the clothes for her no longer patient.

"Are you sure you can do that alone?" Elsa asks as she handles them. Anna takes her stuff and nods to her doctor.

"Okay, then I'll be right outside the door, if you need me just call me out." Then she walks outside and closes the door in order to give her more privacy

Anna begins to undress herself and the first thing she does is to wear her bra. She likes to stay without it, she feel free and comfortable, but she knows she needs to wear it when she isn't at home. She wears a sweatshirt and now it's time for the pants but she's having some problems. She'd like to be able to dress herself alone, but having a broken leg isn't helping her. She sighs.

"Damn…El…ehm Dr. Winters..? Could you help me..?" Immediately Elsa enters in the room.

"Having troubles, I see." She gets closer and takes the pants. "Let see how I can help with this." She kneels down and grabs gently the uninjured leg. The touch sends some electricity all over Anna's body giving her goose bumps. Anna looks down at Elsa who seems pretty focused on what she's doing. On the other side, Anna isn't focused at all, she's only having odd thoughts about her and her blonde doctor. Her heart starts to beat faster as Elsa's hands keep touching her skin.

"And now, it's your turn." Elsa mumbles at the broken leg. Anna chuckles a little at those words. _'Elsa is talking with my leg like it's something alive.'_ The blonde handles the injured leg with a lot of care and after a while she manages to put on those pants on Anna's legs.

"Good, now we need to make you stand up and fix those pants on your waist. Come on, put your hands on my shoulder." Anna does as she's told. She gently lays her hands on her, after that Elsa grabs her waist and helps her to stand up.

"Don't worry I've got you."

_'__Yes, you are..'_ Anna thinks. After Elsa manages to fix the pants on her waist, she helps the redhead to sit again in her bed.

"Thanks.." the younger woman says with a little blush on her cheeks.

"No needs to thank me, it was a pleasure." The blonde checks her clock and sighs. "So, your mother will be here soon, I'm going to find a wheelchair for you." And she exits from the room.

"So, it's time to leave, ready dear?" Gerda is next to her daughter. She wanted to wait for her husband, but Kai is in the OR.

Anna nods to her mother while she's wheeling by Elsa.

"Once we're home, I'll make you some hot chocolate, I bet you miss it."

"Yeah! Thanks Mom!" Elsa rolls her eyes. The trio reach Gerda's car. Elsa is about to opens the car door when the older woman stops her. Then, the blonde helps Anna to sit comfortably in the seat. In the meantime Gerda places the luggage in the trunk, she's giving some times alone for the two girls.

"Thanks for everything.." Anna says quietly, she doesn't want to be heard by her mother.

"As I said, there's no need to thank me, just take care of yourself, all right? We'll see each other when you'll remove the plaster cast." The redhead smiles and squeezes her doctor's hand.

"I know that maybe isn't my place to ask.." Elsa is a little confused.

"Just ask, don't worry." Anna takes a deep breath.

"May..may I ask you your telephone number?" the blonde now is speechless, she doesn't know what to do, it's her patient, well she isn't no more. Giving Anna her number maybe could be a way to be friends.

The redhead notices the silence which is now between them. She's about to talk again when she sees Elsa takes something from her pocket. The blonde starts writing something on the piece of paper and then gives it to her.

"Just remember that when I'm at work I can't answer you back right away, okay? And please.. don't give it to anyone." Anna takes the piece of paper and reads the telephone number of the blonde. She smiles and nods vigorously.

"Of course! I won't give it to anyone. I'll send you a text later. Thanks and it was nice meeting you."

"It was nice for me too, but I'd have preferred we met each other in other circumstances." After that Gerda returns to the two girls.

"All right, it's time to leave. Thanks again Dr. Winters for taking care of my daughter. I promise you I'll keep an eye on her."

"It's okay. Drive safely and have a nice day." Anna waves to Elsa and then Gerda reaches the driver's seat, she starts the engine and drives away.

Anna keeps looking at the piece of paper which Elsa gave her earlier. She admires her handwriting. It's not like the other doctors' handwriting, Elsa's is more neat and most importantly is readable. The blonde didn't write only the number but her name too.

Gerda watches for a moment the rearview mirror and sees her daughter gaze and smile.

"So, how is she?" she asks and chuckles at her daughter's reaction.

Anna looks just like a deer in the middle of the road: scared and surprised.

"W-who!?"

"Dr. Winters, who else?"

"Ah.." Anna tries to keep under control her heartbeat and tries to not blush. "She's nice, an hard worker, she loves what she does and she's a wonderful doctor. She's smart, polite, gentle, gorgeous-" _'Oh shit!'_ "She's great." Anna is cursing herself in her mind. Her parents doesn't know she's lesbian, well she has never brought some guy at home, so they could have some ideas, but she has never said anything about the matter.

Gerda keeps smiling, she has a feeling that her daughter may have something for the young blonde doctor, but she doesn't want to push anything.

"Good. Your father told me she's called the Ice Queen and I was a little concerned you two wouldn't get along. But I'm happy that I was wrong. Since the first time I saw her she's seemed to be a good young woman, and if you say she is, then she is."

Anna nods to her mother while she's putting the piece of paper inside her pocket and she watches outside the window.

Elsa receive a call from Kristoff and she goes to him. Once she arrives, he's in front of their chief's office.

"Dr. Bijorman, did you call me?" he nods and opens the door of Kai's office. Kai is seated in his chair and looks at Elsa.

"Dr. Winters, thanks for everything you've done for my daughter, now it's time for you to start working again to your old cases with Dr. Bijorman."

The two young doctors begin their rounds. Kristoff notices something different in Elsa, she seems to be happier. He thinks it's because she stayed for long only with Anna, whatever the reason is, he's glad about the change, now Elsa seems more human.

"I'm happy to see that you handled well my old patients and I hope you're ready to start learning again."

"I honestly can't wait to work with you again." She looks at the surgeries board.

"It seems you won't wait for long, we have a surgery today. Show me how good you become." He smirks at her and nods. He's starting to like this new Elsa.

They're scrubbing up when Kristoff speaks up.

"Ehy, thank you for what you've done for my cousin." She faces him.

"It's my job, but I'm glad she's fine now. I should be the one thanking you, you found out what happened to her." She finishes to prepare herself for the operations. "Come on, let's go."

They enters in the OR and she lets Kristoff be in charge in this surgery. She has to admit it, she missed this room and she's glad to be there again. The last time she was there it was Anna's surgery, she shouldn't even have been there. But this is her place, the operation room it's her stage, where she can show her skills, where she can saves lives, where she knows she makes her parents proud. But there's something she doesn't like about Kristoff being in charge: he doesn't put some music on. She likes to do a surgery with some classic music, it helps her focus and not be too much under pressure, but well everyone has different tastes.

The operation finishes without problems, the old lady has now her heart fixed and can play again with her grandchildren. The two doctor check on the other patients and do their paper works. According to Kristoff the worst thing being a doctor is all the bureaucracy. Elsa agrees with him, but she won't tell him that.

At the end of the day Kristoff is talking with Mandy about their date and how it went great, when he sees Elsa he says bye to his crush and walks to his boss who's headed in her office.

"Dr. Winters, may I talk to you for a second?" She lets him walk in her office.

"Thanks, I wanted to tell you that I'm thankful to you for letting me operate today."

"Well, you're my intern and I think you're doing a great job, so there's no need to thank me."

"Yeah.. but it's been a while since you did a surgery, I thought.."

"I know, we'll operate together, sometimes I'll be in charge, and other times you'll be. You need to practice. When there'll be operation I think you aren't prepared for, you'll be there next to me learning." He nods to her.

"Okay, our shifts are finished, see you tomorrow then."

"Wait, I need to tell you something." Kristoff is surprised and waits politely for the blonde to talk.

"It's confidential.. I grew close to your cousin Anna during our time together. I know she's staying at her parent's place, but I'd like you to keep an eye on her."

"Sure, I'll do my best." Kristoff smiles at himself. _'I knew it! I hope she realizes soon she likes her, they seems to be perfect for each other.'_

"Thank you, Kristoff. Have a nice evening and get some rest."

"You too, Elsa-" _'Damn!'_ "Can I call you Elsa..!?" She thinks about it for a minute, she'd prefer that only Anna calls her by her name..

"That's okay, but only when we're alone. In front of others I'll be Dr. Winters."

"Okay, see you tomorrow Elsa." He smiles and exits from the office.

After a while, she walks out too and comes back home. She's greeted by Etta who wants some cuddles, Elsa shakes her head but sits on the couch and lets the cat to climb her legs. She starts to pat gently on her head, but she stops her movements when she hears her phone's vibration. She reaches it in her bag and she looks at it.

_"__Ehy Heart's Doctor! It's Anna, I think your shift is finished and I told you I'd have sent you a text. So, here it is. I hope your day went great. I'm sorry to tell you this but I prefer the chocolate I drank today than the chocolate pudding of the hospital. None offense taken, I hope! So, I wish you'll have a nice evening."_

Elsa finds herself smiling at the screen of her mobile phone. _'That's a new one..'_ She begins to respond to the redhead's text.

_"__Hi Anna, Heart's Doctor, uh? My day went well, thanks for your concern. Don't worry, you didn't offend me, but you hurt Etta's feeling, I was giving her some cuddles when she was startled by your text. Have a nice evening you too.  
Elsa"_

She starts again to pats Etta's head when she quickly receive another text.

_'__Oh, I'm sorry.. Send her my apologies please."_

Elsa chuckles at the messages and does as said. Suddenly she decides to do something she usually doesn't do. She starts her camera app of her phone and takes a picture of Etta in her legs and sends it to Anna.

_'__She accepts your apologies. Ah, I was thinking to eat some pizza this evening, but I'll eat that when we'll have our pizza night.'_

Anna reads one more time the blonde's message. She sent her a picture of her cat and her words makes Anna blush. _'She still wants to have with me the pizza night..'_

On the other side Elsa is thinking about what she did. _'I keep doing this things with her, keep being different. She's changing me and I'm not upset about it.'_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone, hope you'll enjoy the new chapter.

Almost 100 followers, thanks guys! I really appreciate all your support you're giving to me.

Have a nice day :)


	16. Chapter 16

Elsa and Kristoff are spending a lot of time together in the past few weeks, since they come back to their daily routine and when they're alone he tells her how Anna is doing. She's happy to know that the redhead is getting better and that her parents are taking a good care of her, well since her father is the chief of an hospital it's obvious that she is treated well.

In a few days she'll be back here at the hospital to free her leg from the _'white damn trap'_ , as Anna likes to call it. She doesn't enjoy staying still all day, the only thing she does is to study, watch movies and play videogames. She needs to go around, to start jogging again. She needs her time for sport. Elsa knows those things because they keep sending messages once the blonde is home after work.

"Friday Anna removes the plaster cast, I was thinking that maybe we could do something special." Kristoff says while he's seated in the little couch in Elsa's office. She's working at her laptop, today is a quiet day and it isn't always a good thing. Since they started to working together again, they ended up to get along better. Elsa knows she isn't great in making friends, but things changed some days ago.

_It's the end of the shift for the two young doctors, the woman wanted to go directly at home but Kristoff managed to persuade her to go out for a drink._

_"__So, I know you're not great with people, but today wasn't a good day and I just want to help you to distract a bit yourself." That morning in the ER came patients from a car accident. They were a family with two children, a boy and a girl. Elsa had to operate on the younger child, the boy, but he didn't make it. Like his sister and his mother, only the father survived. Even if he's not in the best conditions. _

_"__Yeah, well, things like this happens." She accepted her intern's invitation for an unknown reason. Maybe she doesn't want to stay alone, that case reminded her about the time when her parents died._

_"__Elsa, what's going on? It's not like the first time you lose some patients." He's truly concerned. It's odd to see her becoming like a shell again. He doesn't want her to do so. _

_She sighs and thinks about telling him or not about her parents. She orders something to drink, nothing alcoholic, because she has to drive back home._

_"__They reminded me about my parents." He looks at her confused, he doesn't know anything about her family. Hell, he doesn't know almost nothing in general about his boss, but he understands that this is a delicate issue and decides to wait for her to talk about it._

_"__They died in a plane crash when I was 15 years old. My parents were going to a convention, I don't know if you know about it, but they were great surgeons. My father, Joseph, was a neurosurgeon and my mother Katherine was just like me a cardiac surgeon. They should have been gone for few days but instead.." she tries to fight back some tears, she doesn't want to let him see her weakness, but then she feels an hand in her back._

_"__I'm so sorry.." Kristoff rubs her back in order to comfort her a little, it's the first time they're this 'close' and he's a bit afraid she'll shout at him, so he acts like he would do if it was a wild animal. She lets some tears to fall and cover her face with her hand. _

_"__It's been a long time.. but it's like it was yesterday." He nods to her remembering the day at the lake where Anna almost died in front of him and his little brother._

_"__I think I can understand a little.. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night afraid that Anna's dead. She told you the story of the lake, right?" She nods to him._

_"__Well, whenever I see her pills, or it's snowing I think about that day." They share a moment of total silence and then Elsa speaks again._

_"__I've never told anyone about my parents.. the only person who knows about them is Marshall, I think he's the closest friend I have." She mumbles. Kristoff looks surprise to hear that his boss has a friend. _

_"__I don' know if it's my place to say it or not, but I think that you need more friends in your life, and I'd be honored to be one of them.." he says quietly, she's listening to him and thinks about what he's just said. _

_'__I need more friends..' _ _she looks at him and sighs. Her mind goes to the redhead they both know._

_"__I think you're right. But as you said earlier, I'm not great with people." He smiles at her and takes away his hand from her back._

_"__But you just let me in, partially. You told me something you've never told anyone. This is a start, don't you think?" He extends his hand to her._

_"__So, would you like to try to be friend with me?" Her eyes go down to his hand in front of her. She stays quiet for a moment and then she grabs his hand._

_"__I'd like to."_

"What did you have in mind?" She replies at him without leaving her eyes from the screen.

"Once our shift ends, we could go to my place and eat a pizza all three together." Elsa won't admit him that she was thinking about something like that, even if she wanted to eat alone a pizza with Anna.

"It's a nice idea, you live near the hospital and I keep thinking that your car isn't that safe, so I could pick you up in the morning or you come here with your uncle or I don't know, and I'll drive us at your place." She sends him a glare which he understands immediately. He sighs ad smiles at himself.

"You know I won't change that car, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes." She sighs and closes her laptop. She looks at her intern and sees a book in his hands. "What's that?"

He shows it to her and tries to hide a blush in his cheeks.

"It's a gift from Mandy.." she looks the title and hums. The pediatric nurse and him are dating and their relationship is developing well, sometimes he tells Elsa how things are going and she listens to him without saying anything, mostly because she doesn't know what to say. She's not that experienced in that field.

The rest of the working day ends without surgeries or emergencies and the two doctors return to their home.

Elsa is watching a tv-show when her doorbell rings. She stands up and walks to her front door and she recognizes the person looking through the peephole.

"Come in, how are you?" She smiles at Marshall who's walking in.

"Everything's alright, and you?" They reaches the living room and she shows him to sit down while she goes to bring some glasses. Etta is resting on the carpet placed in the middle of the living room, when she sniffs a familiar smell she stands up and walks to the man and starts to rub against his legs. She can feel the smell of her mother. He smiles at the kitten and he's pleased to see how well she's growing up.

Elsa returns from the kitchen and handles him the glass.

"I'm fine, it's nice to see you here."

"I wanted to see how you were doing. I'm glad that everything is fine. So, the last time we talked you told me you got a new friend." She sits next to him and takes Etta in her arms.

"Yes, he's my intern, Kristoff." He thinks he knows that name. Then the realization hits him.

"Isn't the cousin of that girl? The one who was your patient?" She stays still and stops caressing Etta's head.

"Yes.."

"Tell me, how is it doing with her?" He doesn't even try to hide his curiosity. She stays quiet for a moment and then starts to speak.

"I give her my telephone number, and we're sending messages to each others. So I guess, it's doing fine.. This Friday she'll be at the hospital to remove the plaster cast and Kristoff, her and I will eat something together." She tries to fight back a smile at the thought of seeing Anna again.

"That's great! I hope one day I'll meet this girl. I don't even know her name." He smiles at his friend.

"It's Anna." She likes how her name sounds. _"I can't wait to see her again.."_ Marshall manages to hear those words but decides to pretend he doesn't.

He stays for a little longer there and then goes away telling Elsa that he hopes to hear more about this girl.

It's the night for Friday and Elsa is in her bed unable to fall asleep. She takes her phone and looks at the time. _3:05am_

"Damn.." She sighs. She wants to sleep, but the sleep seems doesn't want her. She decides to look at the messages from Anna. Every time she reads them she finds herself smiling like an idiot. She opens the last message from the redhead.

_"__Ah, one last thing. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow. I miss you. Good night and sweet dreams, Heart's Doc."_ She smiles at the nickname and she is surprised to notice how her heart starts beating faster. She didn't answer at that message, because she would have written that she misses her too. More than once she thought to go to her place, but every time decides to not do that because it's her Chief house and daughter. Before taking away her phone she looks at the photo of the redhead, where she's smiling and seems so happy. Elsa can't help to think how cute she is and how much she'd like to see that happiness everyday of her life. At that thought she blinks her eyes and takes away her phone and plunges her head into the pillow.

"Elsa, go to sleep, come on." She says to herself and then closes her eyes letting the darkness surrounding her.

She's in her car outside Kristoff's house, who is locking his front door. As the younger man enters in her car he looks around himself and seems fascinated.

"Wow Elsa, you have a nice car!"

"Thanks, she's my baby." She caress the steering wheel, she loves her car which is a Golf GTI. Her family used to have only German cars, like BMW or Volkswagen, so it's like a tradition having a car of one of those brands. Kristoff seems a bit surprised by the reaction of his boss. _'Did I hear correctly? Has she called her car 'baby'..?'_

Once they arrived at the hospital Elsa locks her car and sees Dr. Summers.

"Good morning doctors." He smiles at them and walks away.

Kristoff and her starts their working day as usual. After the rounds they check one more time the surgeries board and Elsa plans who does which operations in charge.

"So, Anna will be here at 4pm, we end our shift at 6pm, we need Anna to stay here for those two hours, what do you think if she watches the last operation? It lasts an hour and an half." Elsa thinks about it for a moment.

"It's the one I'll do. It's okay for me."

The surgery Kristoff has to do goes fine without any kind of complications, he's improving very well and Elsa is proud of him. They're walking when Elsa hear her phone buzzes. She takes it out from her pocket and there's a message from her favorite redhead.

_"__Knock knock!"_ Elsa is a bit confused but decides to play along.

_"__Who's there?"_

"A redhead who wants to surprise you two!" Elsa turns around to face the familiar voice and sees Anna in front of them. Kristoff hugs her cousin, but Elsa doesn't do anything, she can't hug her, even if she wants so badly to do so.

"Hi Anna, how are you? Ready to remove that thing?" He smiles at her.

"Yep, can't wait! So, Doc. How about we take it off, like..now?" Elsa nods at her and fight back a smile.

"Sure, let's go. Kristoff, please go and prepare the patient of B-38 for her operation."

The two girls goes to a room where they can have more privacy and do what they're there to do. Anna is seated in a bed and Elsa is taking of the plaster cast. Once she finishes she takes a look at the leg and checks how it healed.

"Good, it looks fine." She gently pats her leg and then let her fix her pants. Once she's done the redhead stays still there in the bed.

"So, how are you, Elsa?" She smiles.

"I'm fine, I'm glad to see you again." She tries to fight the urge to say her how much she missed her.

"I missed you, but I didn't miss the hospital!" at that Elsa can't help to chuckle.

"Yeah, I can imagine it. I missed you too." She blinks at her confession, she doesn't want to say that but well, what's done, it's done. She tries to not blush but fails. Anna takes her hand and rubs the back of it.

"I'd like to stay longer.." Elsa can hear the unspoken 'but' and she stops her.

"Would you like to watch me operate?" Anna stays with her mouth open and can't say a word.

"Then.. Kristoff and I were thinking about eating something all together. Our shift ends at 6pm, the surgery lasts an hour and an half." The blonde looks at her hopefully in a positive answer.

"I'd love to see you do what you love the most." The redhead smiles at her and points at her crutches, the doctor stands up to reach them and handle to the younger woman.

Kristoff is waiting his boss in front of the door of the operation room and he sees his cousin with Elsa, he smiles at them.

"Go and do your best, Heart's Doc." She whispers at her, waves at Kristoff and then goes to the room where she can watch the surgery.

She's scrubbing up and notices the other doctor at her side who grins at her.

"What?"

"You look happier when Anna is with you." She stops her movements and feel warm at her cheeks.

"Yeah, well.. she is special." She's glad that she's wearing the mask so that it can hide her little smile and blush. She enters the room and looks up at the glass where she can see Anna smiling at her, then she focuses her attention on the patient and her team.

"Okay people, let's do this."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Ehy guys! I hope you'll enjoy the new chapter.

Wow 100 follows, thanks everyone! It's really nice to see that this story is appreciated. And thanks you all for your reviews.

Be well and have a nice day everyone!


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